


Better than Expected

by captainwingdings (Greggles_Lestrade)



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alpha Murray, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Blow Jobs, Daddy Kink, Domestic Fluff, First Kiss, Frottage, M/M, Omega Alexei, Spanking, just briefly though - Freeform, will add more tags as story progresses
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:33:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 26
Words: 71,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26724460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Greggles_Lestrade/pseuds/captainwingdings
Summary: Alexei expected to be dead, or worse, thrown in a cell somewhere to rot away. This deal though...this was better than he expected, especially once he saw who his alpha would be.
Relationships: Alexei/Murray Bauman
Comments: 46
Kudos: 65





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I ran out of Alexei content and I knew if I wanted more I would have to make it. This is completely self indulgent and I thought I would share since it had gotten a little bit bigger than I anticipated. Just assume that Alexei and Murray are speaking to each other in Russian.

Alexei hated handcuffs. But there he was, after potentially saving the world and helping shut down the portal to another dimension, sitting in an interrogation room in handcuffs. His hands were cuffed to the table and his feet were cuffed together via a chain. It wasn’t like he could run even if he wanted to, where would he go? Who would take in a Russian scientist turned traitor who couldn’t even speak English?

So he was stuck there, waiting in a cold room listening to the clock tick by the seconds on the wall. He just hoped that wherever they put him was better than a Russian Gulag, he heard stories about those places -- people go and they don’t come back. It was a good chance that he was never coming back from where they sent him, but he hoped that it was an okay place, at least.

He shifted a little in his chair, chains rattling between his feet before the door opened. Two men walked in, neither of which Alexei recognized. The two sat down at the table across from him. He looked at them nervously. 

“Doctor Alexei Andreyevsky,” the larger man said in a gruff voice. Alexei nodded, that was him. Alexei Dmitri Andreyevsky. “This is,” the man started, “quite a strange case.” The other man quickly followed with the translation, thankfully. 

“You see,” the army man said, interlinking his fingers together on the table in front of him. “We obviously can’t let you go, but throwing you in a cell for the rest of your days isn’t a good option either.” He waited for the translator to finish. “We can use your knowledge.” Another pause, this time for effect. 

Alexei looked from the translator to the other man, he had wide shoulders with large muscles that could probably snap him in half. “So we have a proposition for you, and it would be wise of you to accept it.” Alexei sat up, eager to hear the proposition, his fate. 

“You tell us what you know, what you were working on, and you can be free.” Alexei raised his eyebrows at that. Free? There had to be a catch. “Well, free in a sense. You would be working for the United States government. We need to make sure we know all we can about what occurred here, and how to stop it if it happens again. You understand, you saw what came out of that portal.” How could he forget? Gross, fleshy goo monster from another dimension. Alexei definitely didn’t want any more of those things roaming around if he could help it.

It seemed like a good deal, but surely there was something more to it, it couldn’t be that easy.

The man across from him opened the file that he had brought in with him. Alexei stretched his neck to see, even though he knew that it was unlikely to be in Russian. “It says here,” the man looked over the file casually, flipping back and forth between the first page and the second. “It says here that you’re an omega,” the man finally looked up at him and Alexei tried to sink into his chair, trying to make himself smaller. The left corner of the man’s lips quirked up into a small smirk. “I’m surprised that the Russians let you study science at all, let alone be a lead on a project such as the one you were head of.” Alexei didn’t want to tell them that he really wasn’t, not at first, he was just the only one who got results and didn’t get killed at the hands of the ones really in charge. 

“We can work with this,” the large man continued. “You see, we treat omegas very differently over here.” The other man translated this for Alexei. Of course he had heard horror stories about America but surely they were just propaganda right? 

Alexei had an idea about what they were going to do, seeing he was omega. He wasn’t _dumb_ , he got to where he was because of his brains, legitimately, as other omegas might have slept their way to where they were. Of course other omegas weren’t in the field he was in. This was what they were going to do, they were going to give him to an alpha just to make sure he was tied down, maybe one of their own in fact, just so they could keep surveillance on him and make sure he wasn’t going to talk to anyone on the other side. He would be forcefully bonded to some pig-headed American and that was the most freedom that he was going to get. Well, considering his other options, it sounded okay. 

“And I think we have someone just in mind...” Alexei tuned back in from his thoughts and looked over at the translator and the larger man. “We just need your signature for you to accept this offer. You should take it.” He pushed a pen and paper over to Alexei’s side of the table. He glanced over the paper, the words _Alpha_ and _Omega_ popping out to him. So he was right, mostly. 

He glanced over at the translator, “Can you read this to me?” 

The translator shook his head. “Just accept it, its the best you’re gonna get, trust me.” Alexei didn’t like that answer, he didn’t like having the decision made for him, whether it was the best one or not. He glanced over the paper again, not understanding anything except those two words, with a sigh he signed his name the best he could with the handcuffs on, it coming out to be a little more than a scribble.

When Alexei looked back up, the grin on the large man’s face was predatory. He hoped that he didn’t just sign his life away to _that_ guy. But what was he gonna do? He could try to escape before the bonding, but where would he go? _Murray_. Alexei could try and find his way back to Murray’s place but without even a tentative grip on the English language, there was no telling where he would end up. 

There was also the issue with his blockers. A few days without them would be okay, but after that Alexei would go through some withdrawals and then his heat full force. It had been a few years since his last heat, more than a few years actually, and it would be a bad heat. At least he would have an alpha to help him through it. Alexei was hoping that the alpha wasn’t too bad and at least would treat him well but he had low expectations. 

The other two men stood. “We’ll give you a room tonight and a change of clothes. Your alpha will pick you up in the morning,” the large man said, followed by the translation by the other before both leaving the room. 

Well, Alexei reasoned with himself, it could be worse, he could be dead. He sighed and sat back in his chair, tilting his head up towards the ceiling panels. How did this become his life? It seemed like only yesterday he had gotten out of the university and had been approached by men from the government for a _secret_ project. It wasn’t like he could say no, but he never thought it would come to this. Or maybe he did, in the back of his mind, he knew that one day he would be discovered as an omega and they couldn’t just _let him go_ , he knew too much. At least he didn’t have to become mated to one of the horrible alphas he had worked with, although he didn’t know if what the Americans had in mind was any better.

Soon someone came to collect him, finally taking off the stupid handcuffs, and lead him to his _room_ . His _room_ which was definitely nicer than the bunk he had been sharing with three other smelly scientists for the last few months. At least there was an attached bathroom, a small one, but a private one nonetheless. He hadn’t had the privilege of a private shower since...before university. Hell, he might even be able to _enjoy it_ and take his time. 

Light was just starting to stream through the windows, having been in the interrogation room for that long. Alexei sighed and walked over to the bed where some clothes were folded. A plain white tee, too big, and some light blue hospital pajama pants, probably also too big. Well it was better than the dirty, smelly clothes he had on currently. He grabbed what was there and walked into the bathroom. The door even had a _lock_ on it.

Alexei slowly pulled off his clothes, his body starting to take on the aches that he had earned the previous night, the adrenaline wearing off. He was sore, and dark bruises had appeared on his pale skin as he stripped himself of his dirty clothes. The clothes weren’t salvageable so he just tossed them in the wastebin near the sink and turned to look at himself in the mirror. He looked exhausted and he felt it too, a sharp ache in his bones as he stood and dark circles starting to take shape under his eyes. “Fuck,” he muttered, but he was still there, even despite the _terminator’s_ \--that’s what Hopper called him, but Alexei was pretty sure his name was Gregori--best efforts. He was a traitor after all and deserved to die. Luckily Alexei was quick on his feet. What he needed right now was to eat something, then sleep for 15 hours. At _least_. He hoped his alpha wasn’t too keen on mating very soon. 

He sighed and turned to the shower, which wasn’t much more than a slot in the wall with a drain in the floor. Alexei had seen worse. He turned on the water until it was steamy and stepped across the small lip in the floor that separated the ‘shower’ from the rest of the bathroom. As soon as the hot water touched his skin he hissed then relaxed, it would do his muscles good, even if he looked like a lobster by the end of it. It would be about a week until he really recovered, and by then he’s probably be in heat, which would be even more that his body had to go through. The next few days were gonna be tough and it could be worse depending on who his alpha was. 

Alexei took his time washing, making sure to scrub every inch of himself, even though it hurt, especially because it hurt. He had such a close call with death. He could still feel the bullet whizzing by, the sound of it when it hit the wooden booth near him. It was a wonder that no one got hurt. 

Once he was sufficiently red, he turned off the shower and reached for the small towel that was provided for him. It was too short and scratchy but it did the job. They also gave him a small plastic comb, as well as a small toothbrush and travel sized tube of toothpaste. At least he could be clean, and maybe get a few hours of sleep in before his alpha came. He finished up brushing his teeth and attempting to run the comb through his curls before giving up and getting dressed. He had to pull the drawstrings tight on the pajama pants so that they wouldn’t fall down, “Who wears a shirt like this? Someone with a watermelon for a head?” The shirt seemed to like sliding off his shoulders to one side or another, even when he tried to fix it. He looked at himself in the mirror for only a second before walking out into the room. 

The sun was fully up now and streaming through the curtains, which Alexei shut in triumph. Fuck you sun. From there he almost collapsed into bed, curling up under the covers and falling fast asleep, too tired to worry anymore about what was to come.


	2. Chapter 2

Alexei was jolted out of sleep with a sharp knock on the door. He made a face and sat up slowly, his body protesting against every inch. “Da?” he called out, his voice weaker than he thought it would come out, at least it came out at all. 

Luckily it was the translator from earlier that opened the door, Alexei could figure that out before slipping on his glasses. “Your alpha is here. He’s been briefed on everything. I brought you some shoes, let’s go.” He held up the slides to show Alexei, who just let out a sigh and carefully, slowly, climbed out of bed. He walked slowly over to the translator and took the sandals from him, dropping them on the floor with a *clop* and pushing his feet into them. He adjusted his shirt once again. The translator nodded at him, thankfully he was a beta so his eyes didn’t linger, before he lead Alexei down the hall. 

Alexei had a feeling it was gonna be Hopper. It would make sense, being the sheriff of Hawkins, he was someone the government could trust. And there was something in the rough tough American sheriff with an attitude taking down a Russian scientist that he was sure that someone would get their rocks off to. Alexei wasn’t going to be happy about it, but at least he _knew_ Hopper. 

When they walked into the main room and Alexei looked up...it wasn’t Hopper. “Murray?” But Murray was a beta...that was what Alexei was led to believe. Maybe he just came because Hop didn’t want to waste his time in retrieving Alexei. That was probably the case but for a second his heart leapt at the thought of Murray maybe…

Murray gave the General in front of him, the large man from before, a lazy salute and walked over to Alexei. “Ready to get out of here?” he said in Russian and Alexei nodded, glancing at the large man and nodding over to the translator before following Murray down the winding hallways and out of the building. 

Once they were outside Murray took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Surprised to see me?” he asked, glancing over at him. 

“Yes...” Alexei said and Murray smiled at him. He could see the other was tired too, but Alexei was glad that he chose to come get him over what Alexei would assume would be a cranky Hopper. Murray led him over to a garish maroon van that Alexei had seen sitting in the driveway of his bunker just yesterday. To think of all the things that had happened between then and now, it almost seemed like a week ago. 

They both got into the front seats and sighed. Alexei rested his head back against the headrest and closed his eyes. “Where are you taking me?”

“Home.” Was the answer Murray provided. “It’s kind of a drive but at least there’s someone to talk to and not some uptight government official, eh?” Alexei could tell that he was trying to get a smile out of him, the effort wasn’t lost but Alexei was too tired to smile. Soon the manila envelope that Murray was holding fell into his lap, causing Alexei to jerk and open his eyes. “Welcome to America, comrade.”

Alexei looked over at him, confused. 

Murray nodded to the envelope. “Open it,” he said before starting up the van with a few tries before the ignition caught. Alexei frowned, if there was anything he could do for the other man, he could fix _that_ before it became a larger issue. He pried the metal clasps open on the envelope and slide out the contents. 

There was a birth certificate. Alexander Smith. With Alexei’s birthday and other various facts. If it wasn’t for the name and the location, Alexei could have sworn...he looked over at Murray. “Mine?”

Murray glanced over at him, “Da. You’re a United States’ citizen now.” He kept stealing glances over at him while he was driving, smiling a little. Alexei looked back down at the paper. That’s all it was, a paper. It was a new identity, sure, one that always belonged in the US, but it was still a piece of paper. Flimsy, delicate paper. A crazy, life changing piece of paper. 

He pulled the packet of papers out more, feeling something with weight to it on top of them further inside the envelope. Keys? Alexei held them up for Murray to see if he knew anything about them. 

“Just- uh...” Murray tossed an empty Burger King cup into the back. “Toss them in there. They’re for later.” Alexei wasn’t going to ask questions, he was much too tired for that. He put them in the sticky cup holder and looked back at the stack of papers. Out with the keys came a small paper card, a social security card with his --well his American--name on it. “Don’t lose that one, it’s a bitch getting another one.” Alexei nodded at Murray slowly and slid it back into the envelope.

Behind the birth certificate was a high school diploma as well as a few other diplomas, signifying his doctorate. At least they got his area of study right. Electrical engineering. He wondered briefly how they had all of this information on him but then decided to worry about that later on, he could conspire with Murray about it later. The next paper was a...he couldn’t read the words printed in finely crafted cursive at the top, but below was his name as well as...Murray’s? As well as a place for signatures at the bottom, it looked like Murray had already signed his name. 

Murray glanced over again. “Oh, that’s the bonding paper,” he said in a soft voice. “You don’t need to sign it, it’s just our copy. The only signature they care about is the alpha’s on that-” Then he said something in English that sounded like he disapproved of that fact. 

“ _Our_ copy?” Alexei blinked at him. He finally looked up and around him out the window. It was all forest but it seemed like they weren’t headed back into Hawkins but away from it. Which meant- “ _You’re_ my alpha?”

“Da….you didn’t know that?” Murray made a face at the road. 

All of Alexei’s breath seemed to leave him as he looked at the bonding license. How was it that the best possible outcome happened? He felt himself trembling, the hand holding the paper shaking slightly. “I...I didn’t know you were an alpha...”

“Well,” Murray started, watching the road before them, a deer could run out at any minute, “I want people to think I’m a Beta, it’s less off putting. People just assume that I am and I don’t correct them.” He sighed a little. “I use scent blocking soap but I guess I’m gonna have to switch to something else now.”

Alexei looked over at him, eyebrows furrowed. “Why?” If they both used the scent blocking soap they could pretend like everything was normal, like before. Not that things were normal before but, there was no dynamics involved between them. 

Murray shook his head. “Once we’re...” He glanced over at him, unsure, “bonded, then it’s gonna be hard to overpower that scent. It’s biology, a defense mechanism that humanity picked up in its early days. Makes it easier to know who is mated and who isn’t, stops disputes and whatnot.”

“Oh.” Alexei looked back down at the bonding certificate. Did that mean that he was going to smell like Murray? What did Murray even _smell_ like? He supposed that soap did it’s job. 

“Are you disappointed?” Murray asked him. 

Alexei’s head shot up and looked at him. “What? No! It’s...too good to be true is all. I expected someone like Hopper. I’m glad it’s you.” He told him softly, which softened the other man as well, he could see Murray relaxing a bit. 

“Well,” Murray started, “I think I’m gonna make a pretty shitty alpha. I’m not about all that macho bravo bullshit like Jim is.”

“I’m not gonna make a very good omega either, never have.” Alexei started to smile. 

Murray looked over at him with a grin. “Looks like we’re gonna have to work it out ourselves, huh?” 

Alexei looked at him and grinned widely. “I can’t believe this….” He shook his head. “There has to be some catch.” He had an alpha who wasn’t an absolute idiot, who could speak his language, and seemed to want to treat him equally. There had to be a catch.

“Well, we have to live under the ever watchful eyes of the United States government.” Murray shrugged, not sounding too thrilled about that. 

Alexei looked at him, smile fading a little. “Did you not have a choice either?” He would have thought that surely Murray had a choice, even if it was an either or sort of situation. Either take this omega, or...

“I did.” Murray glanced over at him. “But it was obvious, I couldn’t just let you...” Alexei raised his eyebrows a little, of course it was nice that Murray thought of him, _chose_ him. “Who else were they gonna put you with? At least I speak Russian and I’m not a total imbecile. I would think we could at least live with each other without tearing each other’s throats out. We’re two rational adults, we can talk things out and not have to rely on...what’s so funny?” Alexei had started silently laughing at Murray’s rant, his shoulders shaking with it, trying to keep it in. “Don’t make me turn this van around.”

Alexei grinned at him, resting his head back against the headrest, his head tilted so he could watch Murray. “We won’t act like Joyce and Hopper, you mean.”

“Exactly.” Murray nodded once and stared ahead at the road. 

Alexei kept watching him however, and he knew that Murray _knew_ that he was watching him. “So are we going to discuss it or are you just going to ignore the real reason you chose me.” He asked, “Dare I say you _volunteered_?” Murray’s hard sigh made Alexei smile and also gave him the answer he wanted. 

Murray sighed again before saying, not looking away from the road in front of them, “Look, I’m tired, you’re tired, I think we should get some rest before we talk about anything big. Deal?”

Alexei nodded. “Yeah that sounds reasonable.” He continued to watch him though. “Did you get _any_ sleep last night?” Murray gave him a look that said, ‘what do you think?’ before focusing on the road again. “Then maybe I should drive?”

Murray shook his head. “You’ll miss the turnoff and wind up in Ohio or some other horrible place.” Alexei gave him a look, he didn’t know anything about America or what states were worse than others. Maybe Ohio was like Siberia with the gulags.

“You’ll be okay driving that far?” Alexei asked him. “If it’s just a long stretch I can drive it and wake you up in half an hour.”

“No, no, don’t worry about me,” Murray told him and Alexei rolled his eyes. “But keep talking to me, that’s good, I’ll keep awake that way.”

“Great, if it’s a choice between talking to keep awake and falling asleep, I feel so safe right now” Alexei scoffed. 

“You can stop with the attitude, one. Two, can you read any of those papers underneath the first few?” Murray asked him, nodding at the packet of papers still on Alexei’s lap. 

Alexei flipped through them and shook his head. “No, all English. Do you know what they are? They told me that you were _briefed_ or something about what they want me to do for them.”

Murray nodded. “Yeah that’s the brief, doesn’t help you if you can’t read it though.” He glanced over at him and Alexei looked out the window. He was _not_ going to learn English just to talk to some American pigs. “I’ll read it when I wake up later,” Murray told him after a few seconds of silence. “Or I’ll read it _to_ you if you want.”

“I suppose I should know what it says,” Alexei said, turning back to the papers and trying to make out the words. Maybe it would be better without his glasses, he slipped them up onto his forehead and squinted down at the unfamiliar text. Nope. Unrecognizable and now blurry. He slid his glasses back on and shrugged, pushing the papers back into the envelope. “So what’s the keys for?” 

“Uh, it was part of my deal,” Murray told him. “And I got a great deal, let me tell you.” He grinned, liking having cheated the US government, or at least he thought he was cheating them. 

“Then tell me.” Alexei raised an eyebrow at him. “Did they get you a new car? This one needs a tune up.”

“Hey this one is old and reliable and she has done me well over the years,” Murray said, patting the dashboard lovingly. 

“Well _she_ needs a tune up,” Alexei told him. “I can do it for you, I’ll add it to your bill.” He grinned over at him. 

“My...” Murray looked over at him then rolled his eyes. Alexei giggled and Murray couldn’t help but smile. “I got _us_ a house...in Hawkins. _And_ a sizeable number in your bank account, which is technically mine too because of stupid bonding rules. As well as a monthly stipend which will only grow as we stay together.”

Alexei nodded, that sounded quite good. “You know the house is going to be bugged.”

“Yeah, well lucky I know how to deal with bugs. Besides, what better place to hide than right under the governments nose?” Murray said as though he figured out a secret. 

That sounded like the worst place to hide. “You’re telling yourself that to make you feel better about it?” Alexei nodded, it was understandable, Murray seemed to have been off the radar until Hopper and them showed up. 

“Yeah.” Murray grimaced. “Maybe it won’t be so bad. We are technically on the government’s payroll now, and I intend to squeeze as much out of them as possible.” Alexei was sure that he’d do just that, he was sure that the other spent all night trying to get the best possible deal for them. 

“Doctor Alexander Bauman,” Alexei tried the name out on his tongue, it wasn’t bad. Murray swerved the van a little, making Alexei grab onto the arm rest. “What?”

“You can’t just say shit like that out of no where.”

Alexei gave him a look. “What? I have a doctorate.” He patted the bundle of papers in the manila envelope. 

Murray sighed and shook his head. “No not that part...Just the...the whole thing together.” 

A dark smirk spread out across Alexei’s mouth. “You mean Alexander _Bauman_ ?” Murray choked a little bit but tried to hide it. “Or maybe _Alexei Bauman._ ” A screech of tires and Alexei cackled.

“You’re gonna kill us both if you keep that up," Murray told him and started driving again. “And it won’t be my fault.”

“Okay okay.” Alexei calmed down his laughing fit for a second. “I like it though. Murray Andreyevsky doesn’t sound as nice.” Murray’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. “I like Al-”

“Don’t say it again or I’ll feed you to the bears,” Murray warned.

Alexei scoffed. “Bears in Russia are ten times the bears you Americans have.” 

“Okay Chekov.” Murray grinned at his own joke. “What, they don’t have Star Trek in Russia?”

“We don’t get American shows,” Alexei shrugged. “What is Star Trek? You’ll have to show me.” He’ll get the reference eventually. 

“You’ll like it, it’s sci-fi.” Murray nodded, they were going to have to start a list. “Wait, but you’ve referenced Rambo, you get _Rambo_ in Russia?”

“No, we watch Rambo here,” Alexei told him. “On day off, one of us went down to video store and picked up something. They all like war movies though.” He grimaced. “They’re okay but when you see stuff like that first hand...I rather not watch it on film.”

Murray nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind. You’ll like Star Trek though. I’ll make a list.” He glanced over at him again, eyeing his bare shoulder now that his shirt had fallen down again. The shirt had stayed in place until now. “And some new clothes.”

Alexei shrugged the shirt back over his shoulder, not liking how exposed it made him feel, even in Murray’s presence. “Yeah, this shirt is way too big, I think they did it on purpose,” He muttered. 

“Probably,” Murray agreed, “some psychological bullshit probably.” That did make sense, considering what Alexei knew about the US government, which admittedly wasn’t much, but it was enough. 

Alexei sighed and rested his head back against the headrest. He was quiet for a moment before asking with a smile, “That shotgun wasn’t loaded was it?”

Murray gave a slow smile. “Nope.”

“And that metal detector, did you make it yourself?” Alexei asked him. “Seemed dangerous.”

“Yes I made it myself and it works great, thank you very much,” Murray scoffed and pulled onto a dirt road. 

“I didn’t say it didn’t _work_ , I just said it was dangerous, with the exposed wires and all.” Alexei shrugged. He was actually impressed with the craftsmanship, although unrefined. “I can help, you know. I basically built that laser down in the mall.” Not to toot his own horn. 

“You did that all by yourself? Wow,” Murray said unimpressed, not believing him. 

“Well...mostly by myself. Many helped but I worked on it the most, actually. That was why I was the _lead scientist_...after they killed the other ones,” Alexei muttered that last bit. “There were five to start off, I was the junior lead.” He shrugged. 

Murray glanced at him, curiously. “So why did they kill the rest of them?”

Alexei took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I came on as the junior lead, right out of university and immediately I found flaws in their plans. So...the lead was made an example of. The rest didn’t like me much after that.” He looked over at Murray. “The next one was caught talking behind the General’s back. The next was killed just before we came to Hawkins and the next on the trial run here. I had to fix everything with the power and get it to work or I was next,” he said quietly. 

Murray was quiet for a moment before saying, “So that’s why you didn’t run when you had the chance.”

“If I went back, they'd kill me, if they catch me, they'd kill me. It was safer with you.” Alexei nodded. “I had to think about it, although I did want freedom, where the hell was I going to go? I don’t speak English, I had nothing.” He shrugged. “And although I hated to give into Hopper, I had to.”

“It was the smart thing to do, I’ll admit. But I’ll also admit that he knew exactly what you were gonna do, you played right into it,” Murray told him as they pulled off onto another road, it wouldn’t be too much longer now. 

“He should have taken the handcuffs off before then. What kind of wild animal attacks someone in handcuffs?” Alexei scoffed, not liking that Murray was taking Hopper’s side in things. 

“I never said he didn’t have issues to work out or that he’s never wrong, I just said that in that particular instance he was right,” Murray told him as they pulled into the gravel driveway of his bunker. 

Alexei made a face and looked out the window at the entrance to the bunker. Home sweet home, for now. He wondered how big the house in Hawkins was gonna be. 

Murray turned off the car and looked at him with a sigh. “So I was thinking we rest up here for a few days and I get stuff together that I want to bring with me, and then we go to the new house. Sound like a plan?”

Alexei nodded and unbuckled his seatbelt to slide out of the van, almost falling when his feet hit the ground. He was more tired than he thought. “Fuck...” He caught himself on the door. 

Murray looked over, alarmed. “You okay?” His hand was already on the latch for his seatbelt. 

“Just more tired than I thought, don’t worry about me,” Alexei told him and stood up, letting go of the door hesitantly, just to make sure that he could take another step without almost collapsing again. Once he was sure that he could at least get inside the bunker, he closed the door to the van. Murray got out the other side and walked ahead of him to open the door, punching in a code on the keypad, followed by another, shorter one after a beep. The door beeped twice and the lock disengaged audibly. 

Alexei raised his eyebrows at the system wondering if, like the metal detector, Murray had set this up as well. If he did then, there would be a lot for them to talk about potentially. Alexei stopped in the doorway. “Are you gonna search me again?” He asked, amused. 

Murray stopped and turned around, his eyebrow raised. “Do you want me to?” 

Alexei lifted his arms a little and looked down at what he was wearing. “Not much to search.” His shirt slipped down his shoulder again and he caught Murray’s eyes go to the milky skin of his shoulder. At least he knew that Murray actually wanted him, in some capacity. He smiled at him and lowered his arms, not fixing his shirt this time. Murray licked his lips before turning and walking further into the bunker. 

“So I guess I’ll sleep on the pull out and you can take the bed,” Murray said with a sigh and Alexei could tell that he wasn’t looking forward to that. 

“How big is your bed? Why won’t we share, we are bonded after all….or going to be. Let’s not dance around each other,” Alexei told him with a little shrug of his shoulders. “Like you said before, we’re two rational adults, we know the situation, let’s not pretend otherwise."

Murray looked at him for a second and nodded. “Are you hungry or anything…?” Alexei shook his head, he could tell that Murray was just trying to take care of him, and it was nice, but awkward at the same time. 

“Just tired.” Alexei sighed, scratching at his curls. That shampoo that he used at the lab made his scalp itchy. “Come on, don’t be shy,” he nodded to the open door of what he assumed to be the bedroom. 

Like all the other rooms in Murray's _bunker_ , it was cluttered, he hadn’t even bothered to make his bed, but Alexei couldn’t bring himself to care. It was a different world than the one he had been living in during the last few years of his life, and Murray was a bachelor after all. Or _was_ a bachelor. 

Once Alexei climbed onto the bed, he was surrounded by Murray’s scent, it was muted because of that scent blocker soap, but it was still there. Probably because of Murray’s nighttime activities. His mind went there even though he didn’t want it to as he climbed under the covers and settled in. At least the bed was comfortable. He took off his glasses and put them on the night stand before scooting to the other side of the bed.

He heard Murray putter about with things in the back before finally sitting on the edge of the bed. Alexei looked over his shoulder at him, his back currently to him. “Do you have enough room?” He asked, even though he was clearly on the other side of the bed. 

“Yeah, thanks,” Murray said softly before saying a little louder, “You know, I usually sleep nude.”

Alexei blinked as his mind conjured up that image before settling back down. “Do what you want, it’s your bed,” he muttered, moving to curl up under the blankets like he usually did to sleep. 

“I’ll keep on my underwear for your sake,” he heard Murray mutter before shifting and getting into bed. “Good night.” 

“Good night,” Alexei returned softly. He didn’t expect Murray to do anything during the night, even though it was well within his right to take advantage of his omega. But despite everything, Murray was one of the only Americans that he trusted, besides Joyce. He still wasn’t too sure about Hopper. 

Soon Murray’s breathing evened out into long, deep breaths, but Alexei seemed to be wide awake. He was tired, yes, desperately tired, but his mind was racing. He hated it, but it was the price to pay for being smart, he figured. Alexei carefully turned so that he was facing the other man, studying him carefully in the dark room. 

He was hairy, Alexei could see that much, except for the top of his head, there was of course his beard, which Alexei was definitely curious about when he first saw the other man. The Russian government required the workers to be clean shaven and orderly, and even then Murray’s beard looked well loved and taken care of. From what he could see, what the blanket wasn’t covering, Murray also had a very hairy chest. Alexei was interested in how far the hair actually went down…

Being an omega, Alexei’s chest had a fine peach fuzz on it, nothing like Murray’s thick forest of dark hair. He even had trouble growing a beard, whatever came in was spotty at best, but that also meant he could take a few days before really needing to shave. Of course he had pubes and armpit hair, everyone grew those. The hair on his arms and legs were so light and fine that it was basically non-existent there too. While he was looking at Murray, studying him, he wondered what it would feel like having all that extra hair. Did the top of his head get cold? 

While Alexei was in his thoughts, the other man let out a loud snore. Alexei let out a giggle before covering his mouth as to not wake him. Snoring didn’t bother him, all three of his roommates under Starcourt did it, sometimes they even got in sync with one another. Alexei could sleep through it, no problem, he had no other choice in the matter over there, over here he could just tease Murray about it.

Alexei scooted a little closer to Murray, because his body was putting out warmth and Alexei liked that. He liked to be warm. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If yall wanna talk more about the boys, then my tumblr is captainwingdings, and my discord is captainwingdings#1957 please come yell with me about them, I hardly have anyone to yell with.


	3. Chapter 3

He must have fallen asleep not soon after that because the next thing he knew he was waking up. Murray was already up and Alexei had migrated to his warm spot in the bed sometime after he had left, probably. Alexei sat up in the bed and yawned, it smelled like fresh coffee and Alexei was all for that. He reached over and put on his glasses before getting out of bed, heading to the bathroom. 

A few minutes later he was following the scent of coffee. “Good morning,” Alexei said softly, leaning up against the counter. There was no table, this was a bachelor pad after all. 

“Morning.” Murray looked over his shoulder after a little while. He poured the coffee into two mismatched mugs. “Cream or sugar?” 

“Yes,” Alexei said as he watched Murray walk over to the fridge and pull out the cream. He looked over this shoulder at him and grabbed the sugar from on top of the fridge, wandering over to the mugs again. Alexei walked over to him to fix his own, pouring some sugar in as well as plenty of milk. Murray had a slightly dirty satin bathrobe on, colorful and it oddly suited him.

Murray did a double take. “Do you want any coffee with your cream?” Alexei lifted the mug and took a sip. “Do you taste any coffee at all? It’s good coffee...” He looked over at his french press and the bag of fancy coffee beans. 

“It’s good.” Alexei nodded, turning. Both of them walked into the living room and sat down on the sofa with a sigh. Alexei looked over at Murray, “This is surreal.”

“You’re telling me,” Murray said as he sipped his coffee with a sigh. “I never thought-” he stopped his sentence with a scoff. Alexei tilted his head a bit in question. Murray glanced at him and shook his head. “Never thought I’d have an omega,” he said finally.

Alexei sighed and nodded, taking another sip of his own coffee. “I always thought that I’d die before getting the chance to get an alpha.” He said thoughtfully, “Either that or...I’d be found out and forced to mate with some awful alpha with no brains.” He looked over at Murray and smiled a little. “So you’re not bad, considering the alternative.”

“Thanks,” Murray said dryly. “So glad I can help out.” Alexei grinned and sat back against the couch, sinking down slightly. “You really thought they were gonna kill you.”

Alexei nodded sipping from his mug. “The machine wasn’t working like they wanted it to. There wasn’t enough power in Hawkins to run it at its full capacity and apparently that was my fault.” He shrugged. “I was trying to boost the output when Hopper and Joyce came.”

“Hopper, your knight in shining armor.” Murray made a face, almost hidden by the rim of his mug when he went to take a drink.

Alexei scoffed, “Until he handcuffed me to a pipe while he and Gregori were shooting at each other in an inclosed space.” He rolled his eyes, the idiots, he was glad that the rebounding shots didn’t hit anyone.

“Glad that Gregori was a bad shot,” Murray muttered into his coffee. Alexei hummed in agreement. Murray took another sip of his coffee before putting it down on the coffee table in front of the sofa. “So I was thinking that I get some stuff together that I can’t live without today and we go check out that house.”

Alexei nodded. “Okay. I can work on the van while you pack.” It sounded like a plan was coming together, he could let Murray go through things that he needed to, he knew Murray was a private man so he doubted that he would be much of a help knowing what to pack. It was early in the morning, so they would be able to make a trip to the house today and see whether it was furnished or not.

“Okay you can play the sexy mechanic, while I do all the heavy lifting.” 

“You think mechanics are sexy?” Alexei looked over at him. He processed the rest of what Murray said, “You think _ I’m  _ sexy.” He gave a little smirk.

Murray was quiet for a few moments before, “I said what I said,” he said simply, standing up. “I’m going to take a shower.”

“Where are your tools?” Alexei asked him, “For the car?”

“Scattered here and there,” Murray told him with a wave of his hand as he started to walk to the bathroom. “You’ll find them if you need them-” And with that he closed the bathroom door behind him. 

Alexei made a face into his mug of coffee before finishing it up. It  _ was _ good coffee, he could tell that even under the cream and sugar. He took both of their mugs into the kitchen and placed them in the sink before checking  _ under _ the sink for any tools. Nothing. 

Coat closet? No. Cabinet where Murray kept the metal detector? Nothing, he could have sworn they were in there. Not under the stack of newspapers either, nor under the other one. Alexei put his hands on his hips and looked around the living room. He  _ knew _ he needed a wrench, maybe a screwdriver. 

Alexei swore under his breath and turned to glance at the bookcase he was standing before. Lots of English titles but one caught his attention: a large volume of Doyvereski. He wondered if it was in Russian or English, he pulled on the spine to pull it out, but instead...the bookcase gave a click and it opened to a secret room. Of course. 

He pushed the bookcase door open and stepped into the other room, maybe this was were the tools were. It looked like Alexei stumbled into Murray’s office, where he did his...investigations. He was pretty sure that Murray was a journalist of some sort, or used to be. There was a wall by the desk with pictures and newspaper articles connected together with red yarn that Alexei looked at briefly. He didn’t know what any of it was about but he knew the kid in the photo, she was at Starcourt, her hair was longer now but that was her. The photo reminded Alexei that he needed to ask Murray what all that was about. The laser he knew about, but the rest? Where did kids get involved?

He found the screwdriver under some papers on the desk. And the wrench...the wrench was under the desk. Alexei crawled under the desk to reach it, grabbing it just as he heard Murray clear his throat in the doorway. Alexei, attempting to turn to look at him while simultaneously lifting his head, hit his head on the bottom of the desk with a thump. “Oh, fuck.” He sat back down and rubbed the top of his head with a grimace.

Murray smirked at him. “You found my secret, unfortunately now I have to kill you.” Alexei gave him a look, still rubbing his head. “I’m joking.” Alexei just glared at him and got up, at least he got the tools he needed. “This is my secret room, I’m surprised...well, no I’m not surprised you found it so quickly.”

Alexei shrugged at him. “Doyvereski? Really?” He stood in front of him and blinked at him waiting for him to explain, because he knew that Murray had an explanation for him. 

And of course he did, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” 

Alexei grinned at that. “A little too close, don’t you think? I don’t think they meant bond with them.” He found that he liked teasing the other man like this. 

“I like to do things  _ thoroughly, _ ” Murray told him with a little shrug. “Are you hungry?” Alexei nodded, he had been trying to ignore the grinding feeling in his stomach since he woke up. “I’ll make us an omelette then, I’m not promising its gonna be any good but, it’ll be edible,” he said before turning and walking back into the kitchen.

Alexei followed him and watched him set up to start cooking. He set the tools down gently on the counter beside him, leaning up against it to watch him. “Is that your reasoning behind doing all this? Because I’m an  _ enemy _ and you want to keep close watch?”

Murray glanced back at him before putting a frying pan on the stove and turning on the burner. “Yes...no...you’re not an enemy. Not anymore. You’re an American now, remember?” He looked back at him again with a smile. 

“Only legally.” Alexei scoffed. “I don’t believe that just because they offered me citizenship that you decided this.” Murray sighed and cracked three eggs into the pan, cooking them with a pat of butter. 

“I  _ made _ them offer you citizenship,” Murray told him quietly. “I convinced them it would be easier for them in the long run.” He looked back at Alexei. “I can be very convincing when I want to be.” Alexei had no doubt about that, but he still had questions about Murray’s motives.

“Just explain,” Alexei said with a sigh. “You’re the reason why I’m here, I wanna know why.”

Murray nodded. “That’s fair.” He turned back and flipped the egg over in the pan. It took him a second to start. “I asked about you. I didn’t want to just  _ abandon _ you, you had helped us after all, even if you did it to save your own ass.” He shrugged a little. “I wanted to know what their plans were and maybe I could convince them to give you something better. They wanted to know why I cared and….I gave them a proposition.” He glanced back at Alexei before turning to grab two plates from the cupboard above, like the mugs, they were both mismatched.

“So it was your idea.” Alexei studied him carefully. He didn’t think that Murray had been flirting with him before, but to be honest he hadn’t really been paying attention, he had other things on his mind. Not that he knew if someone was subtly flirting with him at all, he never really had that experience before.

“Partially.” Murray nodded, transferring the finished omelette to the plate and starting on the second. “They told me that they wanted information from you, because of course they did, they also told me that you’re an omega so they had  _ ways _ of making you talk.” He made a face at that. “So I proposed that, in order to make you... _ loyal _ to the US, that I bond with you, as an alpha and someone who can speak Russian. We weren’t complete strangers, so that was a plus and you would be more willing to help if there was something that tied you here. At least that’s what I convinced them. They liked that idea, of course, and the fact that I basically volunteered myself up. I figured we got along well enough that you wouldn’t mind. I  _ hoped _ you wouldn’t mind-” He looked back at Alexei to gauge his reaction. When Alexei’s face didn’t change, Murray turned back to cooking.

“I had no idea you were an omega,” Murray continued. “And I figured that despite my background in digging things up that don’t want to be dug up, the fact that I could speak Russian and already knew some of what you guys were doing down in the basement of Starcourt, would help their decision. I told them that I was basically doing them a favor, bonding myself to an enemy of the state and all. Unsurprisingly, no one wanted to give up their right to choose who to bond with, so it wasn’t like they could say no and they had no better plans.” He glanced back at Alexei before flipping the omelette. “It gave me leverage to demand some things in return. I think we got a good deal out of it, like I said before.”

Alexei nodded, silent for a moment, absorbing the information presented. “Thank you,” he said finally. Murray flipped the last omelette onto the second plate and turned off the burner, putting the pan to the side to cool down. He grabbed some forks and grabbed the plates for them. 

“I was happy to do it. I...I didn’t want to see you stuck with a  _ mindless alpha _ brute, like you said before. I consider you good company, despite being Russian.” Murray gave him a little smirk, handing him over the plate with the fresher omelette. 

Alexei gave him a look, taking the plate, nodding. “Thank you.” 

“Screwdriver?” Murray asked suddenly in English, causing Alexei to make a confused face. “It’s just orange juice and vodka,” he continued in Russian, “you want one?”

“A little early to be drinking, but sure.” Alexei shrugged, taking the other plate from Murray so that he could go and make the drinks for them. He went to sit down on the sofa in the living room and waited for the other man to bring the drinks. It didn’t take him long, bringing two glasses back with him and sitting down beside Alexei. “Cheers.” They clunk their glasses together and took a sip. Murray made a face when he tasted the strong vodka but Alexei, as a Russian, was used to it’s bite. 

They both settled in and started eating their breakfast with gusto, neither haven eaten since yesterday afternoon. Alexei was still running over everything Murray said in his head. After knowing Alexei was an omega, he volunteered to be his alpha. He didn’t have to, after all, Alexei was sure that they would have come to the same conclusion after a while, when deciding what to do with him. It meant that Murray liked him in some capacity, even if it was just being friends. Murray wasn’t  _ forced _ into this, which was the main thing, but…

“Let me get a thing clear,” Alexei started after a few moments of silent thinking. “I’m glad to be your omega, even if you just want to be friends in the end. I was forced into this but don’t think that I wouldn’t have chose you if I wasn’t.” He looked over at Murray, who was listening intently. “Like I said before, I didn’t ever think that I’d have an alpha but I think that you’re the best possible choice for me.” He paused for a second. “I just, wanted to let you know my view on things. To let you know that you’re not forcing me to do something I wouldn’t have anyway.”

“So you’re saying if situations were changed, you would have let me court you normally?” Murray clarified. 

“I don’t think you’d do anything  _ normally _ but yes. I think I would.” Alexei gave him a little smile as he watched Murray look back down at his plate, a smile appearing on his face as well. 

“I’m glad to know where we stand then.” Murray nodded. “See what happens when people talk like rational adults about their feelings?” 

Alexei laughed at that. “I assume we’ll see them again? Living in Hawkins...” 

Murray nodded. “Most likely. Joyce will probably offer us over for dinner a few times. She’s like that, I’m sure you know.”

“She’s nice, I like her, even though she’s loud sometimes….a lot of the times.” Alexei nodded. “This omelette is good.” He pointed to the remaining bites on the plate with his fork. 

“Thank you, living as a bachelor for so long you have to learn a thing or two.” Which reminded Murray of how old he was in comparison to Alexei. He might have snuck a few looks at the documents in the envelope before handing them off to the other. It wasn’t that Murray was much older but by looks…

“So you’ll do the cooking and I’ll do the housework. Isn’t is supposed to be the other way around?” Alexei gave him a smile. 

“Why would you ever assume we’d be anything like a normal couple?” Murray asked, taking a sip of his screwdriver. Alexei grinned at him. Murray turned and plucked at Alexei’s oversized shirt. “Need to go shopping for essentials too, this is unacceptable.”

“You could always give me something of yours to wear.” Alexei told him with a shrug. He knew Murray’s eyes were on him as he stood up and stretched. He turned to look at him, “Do you want me to do the dishes?”

“No it’s...how about whoever gets done first does the dishes?” Murray bargained. 

Alexei grinned at him, “I’ll make sure to take my time then.”

“Hey I can sit here and pack all day.” Murray shrugged and gave him a smile. Alexei glanced around, he did have a lot of shit. 

“You said the essentials.” Alexei pointed out. “What are you gonna do with the rest?”

Murray looked around at the clutter he had amassed. “Toss it, donate it, sell it.” He shrugged. “I have to go through it, I didn’t realize it got that bad...”

“You can bring it to the house, its not like I have anything to contribute.” Alexei shrugged, it was Murray’s stuff, he didn’t want the other to part with it if he didn’t want to.

“Yeah but...it’s a lot of junk I don’t use.” Murray said softly, “I don’t want our home looking like a trash pile.” Alexei raised his eyebrows at him. “Maybe the basement for some of it. I’m just saying you might make some friends and want to invite them over and I don’t want you to be embarrassed.” Alexei just looked at him. “Okay, I admit it, I used  _ things _ to make people uncomfortable visiting here.” It seemed like Alexei didn’t even have to say a word in order for Murray to want to elaborate on things. It was a good thing to know.

“Okay,” Alexei said simply, taking his orange juice and vodka and downing it, much to Murray’s surprise. He looked back at Murray again and smiled. “I’ll be working on the van.” He went to grab his shoes as well as the tools from the kitchen counter. “Ah, is there a rag I can use?” Alexei asked, stopped just before the entryway. 

Murray got up, “Uh, hold on,” he said, going into the kitchen and under the sink to grab a few cleaning rags. He tossed them Alexei’s way. “Just use those.” Alexei nodded and headed outside. 

The sun was just started to rise over the trees when he stepped outside and over to the van. It was obnoxious colored, but as long as it worked, Alexei couldn’t complain. It was better than walking through the woods again. He lifted the hood and took a look at the engine. It wasn’t in very good shape. He briefly wondered how long it had been since the van’s last oil change. Did he even want to look at the oil stick?

Murray wasn’t stupid with electronics and stuff, obviously, but Alexei had no idea how savvy he was with mechanics. He sighed and pulled off his bright white shirt, there was no use in getting that dirty, and draped it over a box nearby that looked clean enough and got to work. 


	4. Chapter 4

He didn’t know how late it had gotten until Murray peeked his head out the door to check on him. “Just making sure you haven’t been kidnapped or anything.”

Alexei slid out from under the car using a crushed cardboard box that he had found nearby, he was sweaty and dirty from oil and grease but it seemed like he was making headway in the tuneup. 

Murray blinked down at him, his eyes rolling over the splotches of oil on Alexei’s pale body. The corners of Alexei’s mouth quirked up slightly at the sight. It seemed like Murray  _ did _ like the sight of him like this. Alexei cleared his throat and gave him a smile. “I’m still here. When did you last take your van into a shop? It needs a lot of work.”

Murray scoffed at that, “They always overcharge me at shops...is it bad?”

Alexei shrugged. “It could be better, so I’m doing what I can. A few parts need to be replaced, but its not urgent yet,” he wiped his hands on the now filthy rag. “When was the last time you had an oil change?”

“Probably the last time I had it to a shop...” Murray gave him a grimace. “I have oil here, I’ve been meaning to get around to it...” 

Alexei stood up and walked over to him, “I can do it.” As he walked closer Murray’s eyes went a little wide. “Where is it?” He licked his lips and tilted his head a little. He had never been in this position before, never really had the initiative to flirt with someone this openly. He liked Murray’s reactions to him, they made him feel a way he’d never felt before. 

“Uh by the...” Murray just settled on pointing around the side of the bunker. 

“Thanks.” Alexei gave him a big grin and walked around to find the oil can. He wondered if that was what everyone else felt when flirting with someone they liked. And he  _ did _ like Murray, he didn’t know if it was sexual or not but he didn’t think he would mind snuggling up to the other one night while they were watching tv, he could see himself doing that. It was strange, he never really had these thoughts before about anyone else. Sure he found other people attractive but Alexei never thought anyone else would be  _ compatible _ with him. It wasn’t like he didn’t long for a relationship, he just wanted something more than just physical attraction. Mental attraction for him was something that was hard won. Most people were unfortunately, stupid. 

By the time Alexei had found the oil and walked back over to the van, Murray had already retreated inside the bunker. Alexei figured that he’d change the oil and be done working on the van for the day, at least now it wasn’t going to break down on them anytime soon. The oil was, just as he thought, a nightmare. He changed it quickly, making sure that it was topped up before closing the hood of the van. His hands were too dirty for him to touch the shirt he was wearing to put it back on, so he just wiped his hands fruitlessly on a rag and went over to the front door. He tried it, locked. 

Murray’s voice came through the intercom. “Face the camera.” Alexei shot an annoyed look up to the camera. “Name please.”

“ _Alexander Bauman_.” He said with a grin, knowing that Murray was still getting used to him using his last name and it would trip him up. The door in front of him beeped and he opened it with a shake of his head. 

As soon as he was inside, Murray looked him up and down. “You’re filthy. Go take a shower, I’ll lay some clothes out for you. I’m not sure how well they’ll fit but I’m sure it’s better than what you have.” Alexei nodded at him, walking towards the bathroom. “We’ll have to go to Indianapolis to go shopping for some clothes and other home goods. Maybe tomorrow.”

“Yeah sounds good,” Alexei said over his shoulder. Indianapolis, what a horrible name for a city. If he could guess, he would say it was in Indiana. 

“The shower controls are a little wonky, but I’m sure you can figure them out!” Murray called after him before Alexei walked into the bathroom and shut the door. Wonky? What the hell did that mean? Must be an English word. 

Alexei stripped off the blue pajama bottoms and kicked off the sandals, walking over to the shower and looking at the handles for the water. There was one more than there needed to be for a stand alone shower. Alexei blinked, obviously that was what Murray meant by ‘wonky’. He looked up at the shower head, it didn’t seem like it was abnormal in any way. There was no labels on the faucet handles so Alexei would just have to assume that the hot and cold ones were in the same position and the third one was...something else. Maybe Murray converted it into a shower from a bath. 

He hesitantly turned on the cold water, or what he thought was the cold water. The pipes in the walls rattled and steamy hot water rained from the showerhead. Not the cold one then. He turned it off, carefully trying to avoid the spray. Then they were reversed. He tried what would be the hot water. The pipes rattled in the wall and the spray was still molten. He turned it off again and tried the  _ third _ handle. They were all hot water. Did Murray just boil himself when he wanted to take a shower? 

Alexei walked over and opened the bathroom door a crack. “What the fuck is wrong with your shower?” He called to Murray. 

He heard Murray chuckle before responding. “Turn the third knob all the way to the right, then try it.”

Alexei was skeptical but he closed the door and tried what Murray was suggesting. Sure enough turning the third knob all the way on resulted in cold water. Alexei didn’t even want to figure out why that was, what was causing it to be that way, he wasn’t a plumber. He got the water to an agreeable temperature and sat his glasses down on the sink. He stepped inside with a sigh. He was dirty and sweaty, not used to the heat of the sun shining down on him. 

Was it weird to use Murray’s bar of soap? They were bondmates after all...or soon to be. It wasn’t like there were mysterious hairs on the bar of soap so Alexei considered it safe enough. It must be the soap that Murray said was scent covering, it certainly didn’t smell like much. The shampoo and conditioner looked fancy though. Faberge Organics. Alexei couldn’t read the words but it lathered into his hair very nicely and smelled good too. 

He didn’t take anymore time in the shower than necessary because he wanted to see what sort of clothes Murray picked out for him. The other man had the strangest fashion sense. Or maybe that was just Americans in general, Hopper had on a strange shirt as well. Alexei took a final rinse off and turned off the shower, grabbing a towel and drying off. At least the towel was softer than the one at the lab. His glasses were too foggy from the shower, so he wrapped the towel around his waist and grabbed them from the counter. 

Alexei opened the door and checked the ground outside the bathroom. “Murray?” There were no clothes there. 

“Come in the bedroom,” Murray called back softly, the bedroom was a few feet away, there was no point in yelling. Alexei shuffled out of the bathroom, gripping the towel on his waist and his glasses in his other hand. He walked into the bedroom and blinked at Murray, or the shape of Murray. “I...” Murray turned, a shirt in one hand. “Sorry my mind blanked out for a second. Here.” He handed Alexei a striped top. “That should fit...” Murray turned back around to try and find some pants that would work. Alexei took that time to pull the shirt over his head, it was a little tight but it would do. 

He felt like a fool standing there with the towel wrapped around his waist and a shirt on. Alexei put on his glasses just in time to see the pants that Murray pulled out. He made a disapproving face at the plaid pants that Murray held up. “That’s awful, I hope you’re aware.”

“They’re the only ones that are looser on me that you might be able to fit into--where are you going?” Murray asked as Alexei was already turning to walk out of the room. 

“Going to put on the pajama pants from the lab.” At least they were a solid color. Alexei didn’t bother closing the bathroom door as he pulled off the towel and leaned down to grab the pajama pants. He heard a choking noise in the doorway and smiled to himself as he stood back up again. Alexei looked over his shoulder to see Murray, who was bright red in the face, staring down at his ass. “Breathe,” he told him and he slipped on the pajama pants, pulling them up and cutting off Murray’s view. “Are you going to be okay?”

“I’m fine,” Murray muttered and turned back into the bedroom. Alexei smiled, liking that he had that effect on the other man. 

He followed Murray back into the bedroom. “Are you done packing what you need?” Alexei noticed a few boxes in the living room but they represented a small percentage of Murray’s stuff in the bunker. 

Murray put the plaid pants away. “Mostly. I still need to come back and get the rest sorted out but,” he looked over at Alexei, “I think I can survive with what I’ve packed. Can you help me put the boxes in the van? Then we can go and pick up some food, sound good?”

“Yeah, are we gonna get Burger King again?” Alexei asked as they both walked back into the living room. 

“Ah, American fast food at it’s finest, you’re already addicted to it. Yeah we can go to Burger King again.” Murray nodded and Alexei smiled. The  _ whopper _ was very good the last time he had it, even though it was paired with shitty strawberry slurpee. As Murray gathered a few more things, namely the metal detector, Alexei went to go put back on his sandals that he left in the bathroom. He would need to get some real shoes soon.

Alexei grabbed up one of the larger boxes, it wasn’t too heavy, probably filled with papers and things. Murray took something smaller and walked over to open the door, leading Alexei outside and to the trunk of the van. The trunk had a few random things inside of it already, but it was definitely spacious enough for all the boxes that Murray had packed. 

He pushed the box inside and stood up straight again. Murray was watching him. “Did you use my shampoo and conditioner? Your hair is shinier.”

Alexei nodded. “Da, smelled good. Is...that okay?”

“What’s mine is yours.” Murray grinned at him. “Keep bringing boxes out and I’ll pack a few things from the bathroom that we don’t need immediately.” Alexei gave him a look, why was he doing all the work? But turned and walked back into the bunker to get another box, luckily they weren’t heavy. “Don’t forget the tools too, we’ll need those!”

Finally, as Alexei was loading the last box, Murray came out with a bag of things to put beside the boxes. The bunker door shut with finality. “Why did I do all of the work?” 

“Because I’m buying lunch,” Murray grinned at him and closed the door of the trunk. Alexei shook his head and walked around to the passenger’s side and got in. “Relationships are all about give and take, my friend.” Murray slid into the driver’s seat and closed the door. He looked over at him, still smiling. “I think I know what house this is. If it’s the one I’m thinking, its a nice big house.”

Alexei nodded as they pulled out of the yard. “Big is good.” Good for kids. It was something they were going to have to talk about eventually, but Alexei wasn’t gonna bring it up right away. He looked over at Murray. “You know what would be great? Cherry slurpee.” He grinned at him. “Can you get one for me? For doing all the heavy lifting?”

Murray glanced at him and let out a hard breath. “If we go past the 7-11, I’ll  _ think _ about it.” Alexei smiled at him, that was good enough, he sat back in his seat smugly, he basically had Murray wrapped around his finger already. “You know, the van is running smoother,” Murray told him as they got back on the road. 

Alexei gave him a look like ‘you doubted my capabilities?’ “Still need to get replacement parts but I did what I could with what I had available.” He shrugged, it was easy work. Work that also got him thinking about the future,  _ their _ future. “You said something about a stipend? And a bank account?”

“It’s a joint bank account but it’s under your name...well, your American name.” Murray glanced over at him as he drove. “They put twenty thousand in to start, that should be more than enough for us to...” Murray trailed off.

“Start our life together?” Alexei continued for him. It was a sizable sum of money, that was for sure, and if they were cautious, it could last them for a long while. Although he didn’t know if that was the same kind of money in American dollars, but in Soviet dollars they were rich.

“Yeah, that.” Murray let out a breath. “And the monthly stipend would start at about three hundred bucks? Then it goes up the longer we stay together, taking into account uh...you know.” Alexei tilted his head at him not, in fact, knowing. “...inflation.” Murray gave him a quick glance. “As for the house, it’s all paid for, the government pays for the mortgage and utilities. Since we’re technically working for them, I told them we should get those benefits as well.” He grinned, proud that he got such a good deal. “We have life insurance as well as healthcare.”

“And the catch is I tell them everything I know,” Alexei nodded, that wasn’t too hard, considering his own government tried to kill him. 

“And also help them out on some projects...” Murray gave a shrug. “I think it’s worth it. Just as long as you don’t build the next a-bomb or anything, I think we should be okay. It’s not like you’re gonna be working for them all the time...just sometimes.”

Alexei looked out the window, overall it still wasn’t a bad deal, he just hoped that he wouldn’t have to be forced into a something that hurt people. 

“Hey.” Alexei turned to look at him. “It’ll be okay,” Murray told him. “I don’t know what you’ve been told about the US government, but they’re not that bad...I mean they’re bad but…” He sighed and glanced over at him. “It’ll be okay. I promise.” Alexei gave him a little nod. They pulled into the Burger King parking lot. “You want the same thing as last time?”

Alexei nodded at him and gave a little smile as Murray pulled into a parking spot up front. “Come on,” Murray told him, turning off the car and starting to get out. 

“Wait, we’re going inside?” Alexei asked, alarmed. He thought they were going to be eating in the car on the way to Hawkins. 

“Da. I’ve seen how you eat, I’m not letting you eat in my car,” Murray said before closing the door. Alexei scrambled out of the other side, feeling exposed in what he was wearing, but at least it wasn’t that white shirt. He didn’t look  _ horrible _ , he just would have felt more comfortable in his other clothes, the ones that were gross and dirty that he left behind at the lab. At least they were  _ his _ .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Murray uses the same shampoo and conditioner that Steve does. And 20k in 1984 is about 50k now. I found that BK didn't have a drivethru until like 1987, so I'm gonna go with that.


	5. Chapter 5

Luckily there was only a few people inside and no one looked up as they walked in. “Go get a booth,” Murray told him softly, not wanting to speak Russian very loudly out in public for a number of reasons. Alexei nodded as Murray walked over to the order counter. He slid into the vinyl booth, making sure to pick one across the eatery from the other patrons. 

There was a family with three kids, one of them going wild and making a mess. There was also a single man in the corner, eating his burger in silence. Alexei glanced from one to the other, pushing up his glasses with his forefinger. The family looked tired, well the parents did. The mother had a baby in her lap, trying to feed it some applesauce but it was getting everywhere, a daughter sat by her side playing with a barbie doll. On the other side of the table was the father, trying to ignore his son who was wiggling around and acting wild, screeching and doing things that children do when hyped up on sugar. Ketchup packets were on the floor and ketchup was smeared on the son’s face, as well as the table where the son sat previously. 

The solo man in the corner, however, was staring blankly ahead as he ate his burger. He made Alexei nervous, was he a spy? What side was he on? Was he going to attack when they least expected it? Apparently the events of the last few days had effected Alexei more than he thought they had. 

Soon Murray was bringing a tray back to the table with their burgers and fries, and two drinks. He sat down across from Alexei with a sigh. “Coca-cola.” He pointed to the drink closest to Alexei. Alexei nodded and took a sip, it was what he had at the 7-11 when he was with Hopper and Joyce. It was sweet and the carbonation bubbles irritated his throat painfully when he gulped it down earlier, but now that he took careful sips it turned out to be less threatening.

Murray started chowing down on his burger when the child from the other table started yelling and banging on the ketchup smeared table. He made a face and muttered to Alexei, “People need to learn how to control their children.” He then turned and called out to the kid, saying something in English that Alexei couldn’t understand, but it worked since the kid quieted down immediately. 

“What did you say?” Alexei asked, leaning forward a little and unwrapping his whopper. 

“I told him if he didn’t shut up, I’d flush him down the toilet.” Murray smiled at him and took another bite of his burger, it was one way of calming a kid down. 

“You’ll make a great father,” Alexei said as he took a big bite of the mouthwatering burger. Murray sputtered at that, grabbing some napkins to wipe his mouth. He could tell that Murray never thought about that before. 

From that, they ate their meal in relative peace and quiet. The man from the corner got up and silently left the restaurant without doing anything and Alexei relaxed somewhat. The family left shortly after, leaving a mess for the employees to clean up. Alexei wanted to ask Murray a few things but since they were out in public, figured it would best to wait until they were back on the road.

After finishing up their fries, they tossed their garbage and got back into the van. Murray turned to him before starting up the car. “You okay? You looked kinda nervous when I walked up with the food.”

“Yeah, it was just the man in the corner...” Alexei shook his head and pulled on his seatbelt.

“Yeah that guy was super suspicious,” Murray nodded and started the car, at least Alexei wasn’t crazy in believing that the guy was too quiet. “I got a good look at what car he was driving when he pulled out though, so I’ll know if he’s following us.” He pulled out of the parking lot and started down the road. Maybe it was good that Murray was paranoid, considering all that had happened. 

Alexei relaxed into his seat with a little sigh, watching the trees pass by them in the window. “What’s our story?” He asked after a few minutes of silence. He turned his head towards the other, “People are going to wonder where I came from, how we got together...”

He could tell that Murray was thinking about it for a moment before he answered. “The best thing, from what I’ve gathered from spy novels and movies, is to tell the closest thing to the truth as possible. It’s easier to remember, easier to keep your story straight.” Alexei blinked at him and made a skeptical face, that didn’t really work when monsters from other dimensions were involved. “Okay okay, that’s probably not gonna work for us.” Murray shook his head. “How about we just go with what’s happening now? You switched sides, working for our government when the stuff at Starcourt happened. They then moved you down here because they heard word of weird things happening at Starcourt and since I’m an investigative journalist, we got paired up together to investigate and...yeah…”

“Not bad.” Alexei was impressed actually. “That actually might work.” Murray looked proud of himself with Alexei’s approval. “And now we’re moving to Hawkins because we were...the  _ Russians _ were there for a reason and we need to find that out. But other than that it’s  _ confidential. _ ”

“Exactly. Although I hope we don’t have to interact with the neighbors.” Murray grimaced. “The first thing we’re doing, after checking for bugs of course, is making sure our privacy is secured. Fences, privacy screens on windows, door locks, window locks, video surveillance on the front and back doors…” Alexei looked at him, amused. “Privacy is important. Especially if  _ your _ government knows you’re still alive and wants to end that.”

“We don’t know what my government knows,” Alexei said, “But I’m sure a couple of cameras and door locks aren’t going to stop them.”

“No, but it’ll slow them down,” Murray said quietly and Alexei knew that this was a big deal to him. 

“Might also be a good idea not to spread the word that I’m Russian,” Alexei told him, looking out the window. “The less that spreads around, the harder it’ll be to find me.”

Murray nodded. “Well, you already know you’ll have to learn English. It should be easy for you though, you’re smart, you have a lot of people who are going to help you. Just don’t come crying to me when Joyce takes you under her wing,” he said with a little chuckle.

“I like Joyce.” Alexei smiled and watched the trees go by out the window. “She at least tried to get me to understand things instead of just yelling at me like Hopper did.”

“Hopper yells at everyone, you’re not any special,” Murray smiled over at him. “That’s just his way.”

“Bad communication skills,” Alexei muttered. “What does Joyce see in him?”

“Don’t ask me, I think it’s all pheromones.” Both men made similar faces at that. 

Alexei looked out the window for a second, he wanted to ask more questions, learn everything he could about Murray, considering that he was now a big part of his life. But where to begin?

Alexei turned back to look at him, watching him for a second before beginning. “Have you always been alone?”

Murray let out a sighed. “Yes...except for my mother.” Alexei raised his eyebrows at that and Murray glanced over at him. “What? She calls to check up on me.”

“Will I meet her?” Alexei asked, not imagining what sort of woman would have raised someone like Murray. 

“Eventually, I’m sure,” Murray nodded, watching the road. “I’ll have to tell her I’m moving to Hawkins. She’ll want to come over for Chanukah.” Well that was a new piece of information for Alexei. Of course, with the last name  _ Bauman _ it made sense that Murray was Jewish. 

“And what are you going to tell her about me?” Alexei asked, crossing his arms over his chest. “Or am I just going to be your roommate?”

“No, she’ll see right through that.” Murray gave a little laugh. “She knows me too well. I think she’ll be happy that I found someone. Or, rather, that someone was delivered to my doorstep and called me an American pig while I pointed a shotgun at him.”

“Maybe don’t tell her that part, hm?” Alexei smiled at him. “I was surprised you spoke Russian you know, you caught me off guard. I had been insulting Hopper ever since he took me.” Murray laughed loudly at that. “Well, what would you do in my situation? I didn’t know who he was or where they were taking me. The car broke down, he wouldn’t listen to me and cause the engine to explode, made me walk in the heat next to his unpleasant alpha smell. Then you open the door with the shotgun, what was I supposed to say?”

Murray was still silently laughing at Alexei’s retelling of events. “Well, in any case, I’m glad it happened and I’m glad we’re here.” 

Alexei gave him a soft smile. “Yeah, me too.” It was completely true too, it wasn’t as if he was just happy he was alive, he was genuinely happy that  _ Murray _ was his alpha. It all seemed too good to be true still, that he could live this life and not have to pay anything in return, well pay nothing that really mattered. Right now he could let himself be happy, just in case something happened in the future to take this all away. 

Alexei rested his head against the head rest and watched Murray driving. “Still, what are you going to tell her about me?”

Murray shrugged. “Why change the story for her? I don’t want her to think I’m in danger with everything that’s happened in Hawkins-”

“-You think she’ll believe you when you said that you mated with someone who’s working for the government?” Alexei asked him quickly. “Knowing what I know about you, I don’t think she’s gonna believe that for one minute.”

“Fuck, you’re right.” Murray made a face. “Fine, a friend introduced us and  _ don’t _ say anything about that being unrealistic either.” Alexei just gave him a look. “I think she’ll just be happy that I found someone. She’s always been afraid that I was going to die alone or something stupid like that.”

“She’s your mom, she just wants the best for you. I hope we get along, I definitely want to hear stories of your childhood.” Alexei grinned at him.

Murray glared at him. “Don’t get her started. Besides, it’s not fair, I can’t do the same with you.”

Alexei sighed, quiet for a moment. “I haven’t talked to my parents in a long time. My mom was proud that I got into the university but my dad wanted me to go to work like he did. He works at an auto plant, taught me a lot of what I know about cars. Of course cars are different over there, but same principles.” He shrugged. “Are you an only child?”

“Yeah, it was just my mom and I.” Murray glanced over at him again. “I heard Russians have big families?”

“Yeah. I have three older brothers,” Alexei told him. “Ivan, Nikolai, and Vladik. They got along better with my father. Vladik is a truck driver with a wife and three kids, all girls. Ana, Liliya, and Mina. Nikolai works in a fish factory, he’s the manager there. He has a wife, who’s a bitch, and a little boy named Adam. Then there’s Ivan, he’s the oldest but...he gets into messes. Always trying to get rich easy, it never works out. I think he has a girlfriend but honestly he circulates around so much, I don’t even know anymore. They’re all alphas, the apples of my dad’s eye.” Alexei shook his head and sighed.

“Wow,” Murray said as Alexei told him about his family. He was kinda glad that they were all the way over in Russia and unlikely to come to America. 

“My dad hated it when I presented as an omega, unsurprisingly,” Alexei continued. “He was always trying to toughen me up, obviously it didn’t work. Luckily he treated me like beta, I’ve heard some stories about male omegas from other families...I’m glad he wasn’t like that. I  _ do _ miss them but I haven’t talked to them since I graduated. They probably think I’m dead or something.” He looked out the window sadly. He wished there as a way to at least see his mother again. 

Murray was quiet for a moment or two, thinking. “Maybe you can ask to call them, I’m not sure how calls work to Russia, and I’m sure it can’t be a very long call, but maybe they’ll let you.” They meaning the government. 

“Maybe.” Alexei really doubted it. Maybe around Christmas time he’d ask, everyone was always more giving at Christmas time he found. “Anyway, that’s my family.”

“Well,” Murray began, “I think that we’ll be invited over to Joyce’s house more than once, so get ready for that. I don’t even think we can do anything to get out of it, which is the worst part.”

“I don’t think she’s  _ that _ bad and I don’t think that  _ you _ think she’s that bad either.” Alexei looked over at him. “I don’t know what she was yelling about most of the time but she seemed pretty adamant about it.”

“She was worried about the kids,” Murray explained. “That’s a whole other thing that I don’t have all the information on still, so she’ll have to tell you. Her and Hopper. It’s a complex situation, and you should hear it from them since they have both sides of the story.”

“I was wondering why there were kids there at the end. They fought that...thing.” Alexei looked distressed about it. “It came out of the portal we were making didn’t it?” Although Alexei knew that it did. “A lot of people died, and it was my fault.”

“What? No.” Murray glanced over at him. “No. It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t have a choice, and you didn’t know what you were doing, what you’d open up. It absolutely was  _ not _ your fault.” Alexei just sighed and looked out the window, he still felt responsible though, he was the indirect cause. 

Murray looked over at him again. “You don’t believe me, why would I lie to you? To make you feel better? You know that’s not me.” He had a point. “You weren’t the monster that came out of that portal, nor were you responsible for it. Hell, the kid that had his brain infected with it wasn’t even responsible, how do you think he’s gonna feel about everything? You’re not a monster, Alexei.”

Alexei nodded and let out a sigh, he just had to convince himself of that. “You’re a good man, Murray,” he told him.

“Don’t tell people that, I have a...uh, whats the word,  _ reputation _ .” Murray made a face.

Alexei scoffed, “Oh yes, you’re a big bad alpha who doesn’t have emotions and doesn’t care for anyone.” He gave Murray a knowing look. “You know, when we move in, everyone is gonna figure out that that’s not true. Joyce is gonna know, and Hopper...and all those kids are gonna call you _Uncle_ _Murray._ ” Murray gasped in horror and Alexei cackled. 

“Just for that  _ horrifying _ image, no slurpee for you.” Murray shook his head. 

Alexei raised an eyebrow at him, saying slyly, “We already passed the 7-11 a few miles back, I noticed.”

“Yes, well...I had a vision saying that you didn’t deserve it and I was right,” Murray told him, “All that sugar isn’t good for you, you know.”

Alexei scoffed and looked out the window. “I deserved it,” he muttered into the glass. 

“Uncle Murray, that’s  _ awful _ , never suggest that to anyone ever again.” Murray made a face. 

“I think you like it more than you care to admit. Besides, technically you’re already an uncle, since my brothers have kids and you’re mated to me...” Alexei pointed out, or at least he was going to be mated to Alexei, they hadn’t even discussed that part of their relationship yet. 

“Yeah but I’m never gonna see them so it’s unlikely they’ll even know about me.” Murray shrugged. “All I have to worry about is someone like Joyce getting wind of that name and suddenly people are using it all the time.”

“So if Hopper and Joyce get together and have, god forbid, a child, you don’t think they’ll call you that?” Alexei asked him. It was a possible scenario, Hopper and Joyce were still young… Alexei made a face. 

“Yeah, don’t think about that, that’s not a good train of thought to travel down,” Murray shook his head. “All we can do is make them see what we see, you know some people can be oblivious to attraction.”

“It’s almost like they’re purposely avoiding the obvious for some reason.” Alexei frowned. “At the very least they could have sex and then that would solve part of their problems. They don’t  _ have _ to get together. In fact, Hopper being someone’s alpha is kinda scary. He definitely need to work on his anger issues-”

“That’s not our jobs,” Murray held up his hand briefly. “We’re not alive to deal with other people’s messes. Don’t get caught up in that shit, it’s messy.” They passed a ‘Now Entering Hawkins’ sign. “We can only steer them in the right direction.”

Alexei let out a sigh and watched as the town started to emerge from the trees. This was where he was going to be living now, his new home. Hawkins, Indiana. A far cry from Russia that was for sure. 

“Home sweet home,” Murray muttered as they drove through the streets. “What’s the address on the key?” He asked, motioning to where the key was still in the cupholder. 

Alexei pulled it out and looked at the address on the label. “Eh, 2980...” He held the tag up for Murray to read the street name because it was obviously in English.

“Yeah thought so,” Murray said, glancing from the road to the tag then back to the road. “I did a case for this family last year. One of the monsters had killed their daughter and they wanted to find closure. Of course they didn’t know that it was a monster that killed her. The lab took the blame, chemical spill. Paid out a lot of money to them as a result.” He grew silent for a moment. “I thought they would have rebought the house, they had to sell it to pay my...fees. But I guess they moved away instead.”

“Too many painful memories for them here,” Alexei supplied as they pulled up to the house. It was a nice looking, one story mid-century modern home with a big front yard. Murray pulled up onto the driveway and parked the van. 

“Remember, don’t say anything important, they’re probably listening in.” Murray unhooked his seatbelt and got out. Alexei raised his eyebrows and rolled his eyes before getting out of the van. He hoped the neighbors weren’t curiously looking out their blinds at them. Alexei joined Murray on the other side with the key. “We’ll have to get a lawn mower, or pay a kid to do it.” He lead Alexei up to the front door and turned to him. “Don’t expect me to carry you across the threshold, I have a bad back.” 

Alexei gave him a look and unlocked the door. It was empty when they walked in, obviously not furnished, and the wallpaper was bordering on gaudy. They would definitely have to do some work on it. They walked through the house silently, the kitchen was nice and big, and there was a separate dining room too, or at least room for a table that was clearly defined. Alexei made a face at the wallpaper. The rest of the wall was a tan color that was workable, but that wallpaper had to go. Two bathrooms, the smaller one had light blue tile that was definitely workable. Some appliances needed to be upgraded that was for sure, but overall it wasn’t too horrible. 

Luckily the basement was roomy, Alexei could see that Murray liked that at least. When they walked into the hall to look at the two bedrooms, one with an en suite bathroom. One bedroom was pink, obviously for the daughter, and the other for the parents, another horrible wallpaper that hurt Alexei’s eyes. 

“Well...” Murray said quietly, “We each can have a room of our own.” Alexei shook his head. “It was just a suggestion...”

“No,” Alexei spoke quietly as well, stepping closer to him. “We’re supposed to be mates, I don’t care if you sleep naked-”

“Thanks, I wanted the FBI agent listening to us to know that I sleep naked,” Murray whispered angrily. 

“Think of it as a deterrent for them.” Alexei smiled. 

Murray just sighed. “I just wanted to know that you didn’t  _ have _ to sleep in the same room with me if you didn’t want to. I was giving you a  _ choice _ .”

“Why wouldn’t I want to sleep with my alpha?” Alexei shook his head. “Do you not want to sleep with me? Because if that’s the case, then just say so.”

“No, I...” Murray let out a hard sigh out of his nose. “I just wanted to give you a choice in the matter, I...liked waking up next to you this morning,” he admitted. 

“Good. I liked falling asleep next to you last night.” Alexei smiled at him, making Murray start to smile as well, “Even though you snore.” Murray gasped at him and Alexei retreated into the master bedroom to look at the en suite.

“You’re cute, but don’t push it,” Murray told him as he followed him. 

“You think I’m cute?” Alexei looked back over his shoulder at him. 

“I think you  _ know _ you’re cute, and you use it to your advantage,” Murray glared at him and Alexei winked. 

After the walkthrough of the house, they walked outside to grab the tools and ladder they packed. “You do the light fixtures and I’ll do the outlets,” Murray told him as they walked back into the house, Alexei carrying the ladder of course. 

“What exactly am I looking for?” Alexei asked as Murray closed the front door behind them. “Besides, what does it matter if they’re listening in? I’m going to tell them everything I know anyway.”

“Yes but we do have a private life and I don’t think the FBI wants to know that I put ketchup on my steak,” Murray told him. Alexei gave him a look. Murray puts ketchup on his steak? That was weird. Was it an American thing? “Don’t give me that look. We’ll start in the kitchen, check everywhere.”


	6. Chapter 6

“I can’t believe it. Not a single one. We must have missed them.” Murray and Alexei lay on the carpet in the middle of the living room, looking up at the ceiling. 

“Maybe they didn’t put any in because they knew you’d check.” Alexei shrugged. It was definitely a possibility, the lab just wanted to fuck with Murray. “We looked everywhere. There was nothing. I  _ forbid _ you to look anymore.” He knew that Murray would probably waste a week trying to find something that wasn’t there.

Murray sat up and shook his head. “I need some fresh air, stay here, I’m going for a drive. I’ll bring back food too.” He pushed himself up with a grunt. 

“Okay, I’m going to try and peel the wallpaper from the dining room.” Alexei watched him as he walked over to the front door. He hoped that everything was okay with the other man, perhaps he’d ask when Murray got back.

“Please do, it’s awful.” Murray opened the front door, “Don’t open the door if anyone knocks.” Alexei gave him a thumbs up from the floor before Murray shut the door. 

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. They would definitely need to air out in here, it was musty and smelled like the previous owners. Alexei made a face and sat up. The house felt empty now that Murray wasn’t there. It was strange to think of how much someone could bring warmth to a place. 

Alexei got up and grabbed the screwdriver, determined to get that wallpaper off the wall. It said a lot about the previous owners, nothing good, although Alexei  _ did _ feel sorry that they lost their daughter. But this was  _ their _ home now and the wallpaper had to go. 

He peeled up an edge with the screwdriver and started tearing it off the walls, it coming away in big sections. Soon he was pulling off the final big section in the dining room with triumph. Maybe he could do the wallpaper in the bedroom too, it needed to be changed as well and he might as well do something while he was waiting for Murray to get back. 

Alexei moved into the master bedroom, leaving the wallpaper scraps on the floor of the dining room. There was a lot more wallpaper in the master bedroom but Alexei was looking forward to it, it was oddly satisfying. “Take that you fucking wallpaper,” he muttered under his breath. Letting out his anger and saying everything he had ever wanted to say to his stupid, bigoted coworkers.

He was able to do more than half the bedroom before he heard the front door close softly. “Alexei?” Murray’s voice rang out through the empty house. 

“Bedroom,” Alexei called back and started working on a particularly stuck piece of wallpaper. 

“Wow, you’re almost done,” Murray sounded impressed as he stood in the doorway of the bedroom. 

“Da, I figured I’d do some work until you got-” Alexei was turning slowly around, gasping when he saw what Murray had in his hands. “For me!?”

“Well it’s not for me.” Murray held up the Woody Woodpecker plush, the same one from the carnival. Alexei darted across the room, dropping the screwdriver he was using and before either of them knew what was happening, their lips met. 

It was wonderful and magical and before they knew it, it was done and they were just standing there, a few inches apart, looking at each other. All Alexei knew was that he wanted to do it again, repeatedly, for much much longer. Murray cleared his throat, flushing slightly, and pressed the plush into Alexei’s hands. 

“I, uh, got KFC.” Murray used his thumb to motion back at the living room. “I hope you don’t mind eating on the floor.”

“What is  _ KFC _ ?” Alexei questioned and followed Murray to the living room, still holding the Woody toy.

“Kentucky Fried Chicken,” Murray explained, nodding to the bucket and the bag of sides. “Another American classic.” They sat down on the floor beside the bag and bucket of chicken, it smelled good at the very least. He pulled out some paper plates and plastic utensils from the bag and handed them to Alexei. Alexei sat Woody Woodpecker down beside him and took what was offered. “Usually comes with mashed potatoes, gravy, and  **_coleslaw._ ** ” Murray pulled out the sides from the bag and sat them carefully on the floor. 

“ **Cole-slaw** ?” Alexei tilted his head. He didn’t recognize that word, mostly because Murray said the English equivalent. 

“It’s shredded cabbage and mayonnaise…”

“Oh,  _ coleslaw _ , why didn’t you say?” Alexei teased him with a knowing smile. 

Murray just shook his head and started opening the containers with the sides. “What kind of chicken part do you want?” He turned to open up the paper bucket with the chicken pieces in it. Steam rose from the hot chicken and more good smells wafted over to Alexei, making him breath in deeply. 

“What is there?” Alexei leaned forward to look into the round bucket of chicken. “Big chicken.”

“That’s America. Everything is bigger here.” Murray grinned at him and pulled out a chicken thigh. “Are you a leg man or a breast man?”

Alexei glanced over quickly at the question and Murray was still smiling, holding up two pieces of chicken. He shook his head and handed a plate over to him, “Breast. For chicken.” Murray put the piece on the plate.

“I’m an assman myself.” Alexei almost dropped his plate in surprise and gave Murray a look. Murray just shrugged, continuing to smile. Alexei shook his head and handed him the other plate. “Just telling the truth.”

“Would you have said that if there were bugs in the house?” Alexei questioned as Murray put a pile of mashed potatoes on Alexei’s plate. 

Murray thought about it for a second before saying, “Yes I think I would. Pour your own gravy.” He started piling his own plate, a thigh as well as some coleslaw. 

Alexei traded him the mashed potatoes for the coleslaw container. “Uh, why is it runny?” He looked inside the container and grimaced. “Is it just cabbage? And mayonnaise? What a shit coleslaw.” He sat the tub down disappointed. Coleslaw was so much better in Russia, it consisted of more than just cabbage.

“It’s actually not bad,” Murray shrugged, “Once you get over the-” he picked up a forkful and it dripped onto his plate. “It’s just water from the cabbage...”

“I’ll stick with the mashed potatoes, at least they’re not runny.” Alexei grabbed his piece of chicken and took a bite, at least that was good. He was actually impressed. The outside was nice and crispy while the inside was hot and juicy.

“Good huh?” Murray smiled at him. “Next we’ll order some pizza and you can try that. Chicago had the best, but we can try it from a place in Indianapolis that I know is good.”

“Why don’t we go to Chicago instead?” Alexei asked between bites. 

“Because Indianapolis is closer. I only know Chicago style pizza is good because I used to live there.” Murray started eating as well, having loaded up his plate with everything offered. 

Alexei looked at him thoughtfully while he chewed. He wanted to know more about the other man, he wanted to know everything. “Why did you leave?”

Murray grabbed his drink to wash his bite down with. “I used to work for the Chicago Sun until they fired me. I got into conspiracy theories. Most of which are real by the way. But they didn’t like the stories I was giving them, revealed too much about how things really worked, and they just had enough one day. By then I had learned too much of the truth and was scorned as a journalist.”

“Oh.” Alexei made a face. “That sucks….In Russia if people know too much they get killed. Or dragged away never to be seen again.”

“Yeah I know.” Murray nodded. “Being an American has its ups and downs, and I’m not saying that the government doesn’t... _ disappear _ people all the time, I’m just saying that it’s less likely to happen here.” Then he added, “hopefully.”

“We have gulags, you have monsters from another dimension.” Alexei shrugged, not sure what he would rather go up against. 

“Well, if it wasn’t for the Russians we wouldn’t have any more of those either.” Murray pointed his fork at him. 

“You had them first, we just,” he shrugged again, “helped ourselves to them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending what we were doing. I’m just saying we didn’t start it.”

“That’s very true, if the US hadn’t been doing god knows what, we wouldn’t have been in the situation we were in at Starcourt,” Murray agreed. “But then you would still be in Russia, so it’s not all bad, is it?”

Alexei smiled at him. “I guess not. At least I’m here and not working at a nuclear reactor somewhere...did you know there’s a design flaw with the soviet reactors? I was looking over the plans one day when I was at university, I’m not a nuclear physicist but...” He took a bite of mashed potatoes. 

Murray’s eyes went wide and scooted closer to him. “Tell me more.”

“Well, I don’t even think I was supposed to see, I think it was supposed to be censored material, they just missed a book...” Alexei shrugged. “It’s nothing really-”

“No, Alyosha, that’s something!” Murray took Alexei’s face in his hands, pressing his cheeks. 

Alexei blinked at him. Alyosha? He blushed. He didn’t expect Murray to have a pet name for him, but he liked it.

“This is...” Murray let go of his face. “Maybe good enough to get some extra cash too, for remodeling, I know you were looking at the bathroom like you wanted to gut it.“

“You think we’ll be able to get something extra for that?” Alexei asked him. 

“Well the deal was everything you knew about what you were doing down in Starcourt. This is something completely different.” Murray grinned at him. “And important to the health of the world. You know what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the second war. Nuclear shit is dangerous, especially when it’s done wrong.”

Alexei nodded, he had heard what the US did to those tiny Japanese towns. It was scary. “I’ll need a notebook, preferably graph paper. And another one, for notes and things I want to keep track of. Like Star Trek.”

Murray nodded at him. “We can get you whatever you need. We should go to Indianapolis tomorrow to get you some clothes and some furniture for the house. A bed at least.” 

“New clothes would be nice. Some underwear would be better, I feel very...exposed, just wearing these pajama bottoms.” Not to mention it was the second day wearing them, they needed a wash for sure.

Murray choked. “They didn’t give you any underwear?” Alexei shook his head and Murray let out a sigh. “We’ll stop by somewhere before they close tonight to get you something. I apologize on behalf of the US government.”

Alexei laughed. “Never thought I’d hear you say that. It’s really fine...” He said quietly. “I’ll just...wash these tonight and wear something of yours. One of your robes or something.” Murray stared at him for a moment. “Unless you don’t want me to, it’s fine-”

“No, I was just...thinking about you in one of my robes….only my robe.” Alexei raised his eyebrows at him. Oh  _ that _ was what he was thinking of. 

“It’s definitely a possibility.” Alexei liked his lips, and reached over for another piece of chicken. “Are we going back home after we eat?” He bit into his chicken leg.

“Yeah, I was thinking so. Still need to take the things out of the van, but after that, yeah.” Murray nodded and finished off his plate. “Why, did you wanna do something?”

“No, just wondering,” Alexei said thoughtfully. “We should tell Joyce everything.”

“I suppose. But maybe after you get new clothes, I don’t want her thinking that I’m not taking care of you,” Murray said, looking at the half eaten bucket of chicken with a question in his eyes. He decided to grab another piece of chicken after all. 

“Oh  _ you’re _ taking care of  _ me? _ ” Alexei raised an eyebrow at him and smiled. “Is that what this is?”

“What, am I not good enough for you or something?” Murray gave him a look although Alexei knew that he was teasing him right back. 

“If its the  _ best _ you can do...” Alexei tilted his head and gave him a look. Murray sat his plate aside and Alexei knew that he was in trouble. “No! I still have mashed potatoes on my plate!” He carefully sat his plate aside then turned back to Murray. 

Murray jumped, pinning him to the floor. He looked down at him with a grin. “Now what were you saying?”

“I didn’t think you were so spry in your old age.” Alexei grinned and Murray gasped. 

“Okay that was a low blow.” Murray frowned. 

“Sorry, I take it back,” Alexei said softly, wrapping his arms around Murray’s middle. Murray grumbled. “What was that?”

“I’m not  _ that _ old...” Murray said a little louder. “I’m actually only a few years older than you.”

Alexei tilted his head at him and studied his face. “Maybe it’s the beard that makes you look older...but I like your beard.”

“Well I wasn’t gonna shave it for you, darling.” Murray grinned at him. 

“Good.” Alexei licked his lips. “It’s surprisingly soft, it looks like you take care of it well.” Alexei pulled his arm away from Murray’s waist and reached up to touch his beard lightly. 

“I started growing it out when I noticed the hair on the top of of my head started to...retreat from the area.” Murray explained. 

“Well I like it, it looks good on you,” Alexei told him softly, moving his hand to the side of Murray’s neck to pull him down into a kiss. Their second kiss. This one slower and more purposeful. 

Murray pulled away slightly to look at him. “You taste like mashed potatoes,” he muttered and Alexei giggled. 

“Good enough to eat?” Alexei smiled at him. 

“I’ll need another sample to be sure,” Murray said smoothly, leaning down and kissing Alexei again. Alexei made a happy noise in the back of his throat, wrapping his arms around Murray’s neck to keep him there for a least a little while longer than the previous kiss. 

They broke apart with a sigh. “I never really understood why people just sat and kissed each other for a long time, but now I’m starting to see the appeal,” Alexei told him. “Feels nice. Kissing feels nice.”

Murray looked down at him, searching his face for a second. “Are you...telling me that before today...you’ve never been kissed?”

Alexei bit his bottom lip, “Um, yeah? I know it’s weird, but I never got a chan-” He couldn’t finish because Murray was kissing him again. Alexei blinked at him as he pulled away, “I didn’t think that was, uh...” warranted. It was weird that he’d gotten so far in life and never had been kissed like that. “You don’t think it’s weird?”

“People have different experiences.” Murray shook his head. “Just because people didn’t appreciate you before, doesn’t mean that you’re not deserving of love.” 

Alexei gave him a soft smile. “You’re really not as bad as you lead people to believe, you know?”

“Again, you keep saying stuff like that people are gonna find out.” Murray told him, pushing himself up and off of him. 

Alexei let him go with a little frown, sitting up “What’s wrong with people thinking you’re nice? People like nice people.” He moved to grab his plate to finish off his food before they left.

“No, people take  _ advantage _ of nice people,” Murray corrected him. “It’s a hard world out there, you’ll get stepped on if you don’t be careful.”

“So you’ll take advantage of me? I’m nice.” Alexei shoveled some mashed potatoes into his mouth. 

“No, you’re a brat.” Murray rolled his eyes and got up, starting to put the lids back on the containers. “I’ll but these in the fridge for later. Unless you want to take them with us? No eating in the car.”

Alexei nodded and scraped the last bit of mashed potatoes off his plate. “Da, we can have leftovers for dinner.” 

Murray nodded and put everything back in the bag. “Grab the wallpaper scraps and we can throw everything away when we head to the van, no sense in leaving a mess for our future selves.” Alexei nodded and stood up, when he stretched the shirt that Murray had given him to wear hitched up a little, showing off a stripe of pale skin on his lower back. The rustling of the bag stopped and Alexei glanced around to see Murray staring. 

He lowered his arms and gave the other a look. “You get distracted too easily,” Alexei said, amused. 

“Well stop being distracting,” Murray glanced up at his face and smiled. 

“Well, I guess as long as you just look at me and not anyone else, we’re okay.” Alexei shot him a smile before going into the bedroom to clean up the mess he made. He crumpled the torn wallpaper from the bedroom and the dining room into a big ball. Murray had already taken the food out to the van by the time Alexei returned to the living room. 

“Here,” Murray piled the dirty paper plates on top of the wallpaper bundle. “There’s a trash can outside and to the left around the house.” Alexei gave him a look and went to take out the trash. When he walked back around to the front of the house, he was pleased in seeing that Murray had started bringing in some boxes inside, instead waiting for him to do all the heavy lifting. 

“Wow so you can do some work.” Alexei smiled at him as they met at the trunk of the van. “I was starting to think that there was a reason I was doing all the hard work.” 

Murray tutted at him, before grabbing another box. A small box. “Work smarter not harder,” he said in a quiet voice before taking the box into the house. 

Alexei took a deep breath in and shook his head. The man was insufferable, he didn’t know why he liked him. Or, maybe that was  _ why _ Alexei liked him. He took one of the heavier boxes, meeting Murray in the doorway of the house. “Ah, meet me halfway, it’ll be faster.” He stood in the doorway and waited for Murray to take the box from him. 

“I suppose,” Murray said, taking the box from Alexei’s hands.

The next time that happened, Alexei told him, “Relationships are about compromise, da? Give and take.” He earned an unamused look for that, for using Murray’s own words against him.

The next box, Murray had something to say about that, “You’re a monster.” Alexei grinned at him as he handed off the last box.

“Am I?” He followed Murray inside and down into the basement to where he was storing the boxes. “Ah so this was why you were taking so long? You think people won’t check in the basement for things?”

Murray started walking up the basement stairs. “It’s not the first place they’re gonna check. No one likes basements. They’re creepy.” 

Alexei nodded and flicked off the lights, smiling when he heard Murray run up the last few steps. “First, that was rude. Second, that’s not a good way for your alpha to die. You look suspicious and they’ll give you to someone worse than me.” Alexei rolled his eyes and turned back towards the living room. “Don’t roll your eyes-”

“You’re afraid of the dark?” Alexei asked, amused. 

“No.” Murray scoffed. “I’m afraid of what’s  _ in _ the dark. And I don’t know why you aren’t either, we’ve seen literal  _ monsters _ .”

“Yes, but they’re all back where they belong now, far away from us,” Alexei turned to him. “I’ll protect you.” He grinned and Murray gave him a look.

“I feel  _ so _ safe. Thank you, darling. I can sleep better at night, knowing that you are watching out for me,” Murray said sarcastically, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at Alexei with a small smile. 

Alexei paused for a second, looking at him. “You’re welcome.” He smiled and started walking over to the front door. He could definitely fight sarcasm with sarcasm, in fact, that might be the only way  _ to _ fight sarcasm. 

“Ooh, you’re tricky,” Murray said as he followed him out to the van. “Don’t worry though, I’ll find something that gets on your nerves.” They both got into the car and Alexei smiled easily over at him.

“ **Okay** ,” Alexei said in English. Murray gave him a look before starting the car. It seemed like was better at being annoying than Murray was. A fair match. Perhaps it was meant to be all along. In a different world, a different time, they would be free to choose each other, instead of being forced together by circumstance.

“Why don’t we go into Melvalds and get you those notebooks?” Murray asked as he pulled out of the driveway. “So you’re not sitting and rotting your mind with cartoons this evening.”

“What’s wrong with Looney Tunes? I like Looney Tunes. WAIT! We forgot Woody at the house.” Alexei turned in his seat and looked in the rear window sadly. 

“He can guard the house.” Murray shook his head, he wasn’t going to turn back. Alexei turned back around in his seat with a frown. “He won’t get lonely, I promise.” Alexei just sat back in his seat, looking out the window at the town passing by. He never really got to see it before, always in the lab deep underground. It actually wasn’t a bad little place to live, it looked like. Despite the monsters from other dimensions that popped up occasionally. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I did have Alexei mention Chernobyl because reasons.
> 
> I still like comments! Let me know what you think? I crave validation.


	7. Chapter 7

They pulled into the Melvald’s parking lot, only one other car there. Murray looked through the window. “Here, you go in and get them.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. 

Alexei gave him an alarmed look. “What? No-”

“Think of it as a crash course in English.” Murray smiled at him and pressed the few dollars into his hands. “This should more than cover it. Go on.” He unclipped Alexei’s seatbelt for him. “You’ll be fine, I promise. I’ll be right here if you need help. But you won’t. Shoo.”

Alexei gave him an untrusting look but got out of the car. He continued to glance back at Murray, who gave him a cheeky little wave from the front seat, until he opened the door to the shop.

Inside there was no cashier to greet him, but a female voice called out in English from the back. He couldn’t believe that Murray would make him do this, he was so mean. Alexei looked around, trying to see what aisle would have what he was looking for when a woman from the back gave a little cry. “Alexei!?”

Alexei looked over at the woman. “Joyce!” He grinned and before he was enveloped in a tight hug from the woman. She pulled away and looked him over, talking in rapid fire English. “Eh...Murray.” He pointed to the van in the front parking space. 

“Murray!” Joyce smiled and motioned for Murray to come inside. He didn’t look too thrilled about it, but he got out of the car anyway. Once Murray was inside, Alexei gave him a look, his eyebrows raised, saying ‘you should have come in in the first place.’

Murray got a hug from Joyce too, which he grimaced through. He shooed Alexei away and started talking to Joyce. He started to wander down the aisles, looking at all the selection that America had to offer. It was truly amazing how many of the exact same item had different brands. 

“Cherry!” Alexei exclaimed softly when he saw a cherry flavored candy shaped like two little cherries. They were gummies but he was totally getting them because Murray wasn’t there to say no to him. He grabbed the colorful package of candy and continued down the aisle. Luckily the next aisle he came to was the stationary aisle. He didn’t need anything fancy, but he liked graph paper because it was easier to scale the drawings with. 

Unfortunately there was no graph paper notebooks so he chose two composition notebooks as well as a pack of pens, because he was sure that Murray had his scattered everywhere in the bunker and he didn’t want to wait for him to find one that worked. He took his time walking to the front where Joyce was giving Murray a knowing grin. He must have told her about their situation. Of course that meant that now he was caught up in another Joyce hug. 

Alexei gave Murray a look and Murray just shrugged. Joyce pulled away and said something to Alexei, as if he could understand her or maybe she forgot that he didn’t speak English? She smiled at him and then went around the counter to the cash register. Alexei put his stuff on the counter, Murray eyeing up everything. 

“We have pens at home,” Murray told him, “And what’s with the candy? You came in for _two_ things.” Alexei gave him a smile before handing Joyce the money that Murray had given him in the car. Murray grabbed the change that Joyce started to hand back, speaking to her briefly in English. Alexei took up the stuff with a smile at her as they talked, he snuck around Murray and started out to the van, abandoning Murray to his fate.

Murray hurried after him, Joyce still calling after him. They both got in the car and Alexei smiled over at him. “She was happy to see me.”

“She was surprised to see you. And happy, she didn’t know where you would end up.” Murray turned on the car and pulled out of the parking lot. “I told her the situation and she said to give her a call when we get settled down to have dinner.”

“Maybe I’ll try and make some Russian food for her. I don’t know how good of a cook I am but my momma taught me some things when I presented as an omega. So I could take care of my alpha when I got one,” Alexei told him off hand. 

“I don’t think they’re gonna like borscht, darling.” Murray grinned over at him. “That’s kinda a Russian exclusive thing.”

Alexei scoffed. “I was thinking blintzes. Even though that’s usually breakfast, it’ll make a good dessert too.”

“You know how to make those? My bubbie used to make those all the time, I miss them...you should make them for me before you make them for Joyce. Since I’m your alpha and all.” Murray glanced over at him and Alexei gave him a look, the corner of his mouth raised in a smirk. “What?”

“Are you jealous of Joyce?” Alexei asked him. 

“Why would I be jealous of _Joyce_?” Murray blinked and shook his head. “That’s ridiculous.”

Alexei shrugged. “Because she has a family and people like to be around her. I think you want that but are afraid. Why are you afraid of other people?”

“I’m not afraid, I’m _distrustful_.” Alexei just gave him a look, hoping that he would elaborate like last time. “For good reason, most people are selfish and only looking out to better themselves, I’m sure you know.” Alexei nodded, it was true, but acting that way towards everyone just pushed people away, even the good people. Murray continued, “I’ve been burned in the past before for deciding to trust someone who seemed trustworthy at first but come to find out that they rat you out for a piece of cheese in the end.”

“You can trust me. And Joyce,” Alexei said softly. “Maybe you were just working with untrustworthy people back then. Now is different. You don’t have to push people away, even though that’s what you do automatically now, or at least try to. You have a different life now, like me.” Murray just sighed. “It’s true, my love.” Murray glanced over at him quickly with a questioning look. “What? No good? I’ll try something else.”

“No it’s...fine. Just unexpected.” Although he was turned away, Alexei could see that he was smiling. 

“Well you called me Alyosha and darling, so I thought I’d try something out too.” Alexei shrugged. “I’ll find something more suitable.”

“Something that wouldn’t make people assume you love me.”

“Alphas and omegas usually love each other if they’re bonded, what’s so wrong with making people assume that we do too?” It wouldn’t really be a _wrong_ assumption, would it? They were pretty well matched together, Alexei thought.

“Because...we don’t, _you_ don’t. It’s just a deal.” 

“So just because our bond was made from a deal, I can’t love you? Murray. Pull over.” Murray sighed and pulled into an empty parking lot. “Look at me.” He looked over at him reluctantly. “Remember what I told you before? That I would choose you anyway?”

Murray sighed again and shook his head. “But it’s _me_...you don’t know me that well, you don’t know how I am yet-”

“I know exactly how you are, you don’t hide it. You’re not tricking me into thinking you’re better than you are. I like you the way you are,” Alexei told him. “You’re smart and stubborn and sarcastic, and I don’t think you think too highly of yourself but I do. I like the fact that you’re hard for other people to be around because most of the time other people are stupid anyway. You’re the first person I’ve felt a real connection with, Murray. I’m glad that you’re my alpha, _proud_ to be your omega.” He looked at him. “Yeah the series of events that led up to us getting together was not good. But that doesn’t matter now because we’re together.”

Murray watched him closely through this declaration. “I just can’t believe someone like you would want to be with someone like me.”

“Someone like me?” Alexei furrowed his eyebrows, what was he talking about? 

“Someone who’s beautiful, and smart, and funny...and _good_.” Murray shook his head. “You belong with someone who...”

Alexei tilted his head. “Who matches me, treats me well, as their equal. Like _you do_? Murray...I want to be with you. I didn’t know you thought so low of yourself, I’ll have to help you with that, because I see an accomplished man, who fights for what’s right, and tries to get to the bottom of things, even if it leads down a dangerous path. Yes, you’re cynical because you’ve seen the truth behind things, it’s justified. It doesn’t make you a bad person, or a bad alpha. You’ve been so good to me over the past few days, any other alpha might not have given me a choice. That’s who I see when I look at you.” 

Murray was silent, watching him closely as if Alexei would take everything back as soon as he looked away. 

“I want to be here, with you.” Alexei then leaned across the center console and pulled him into a kiss. “Besides, who else would have gone back and gotten me that toy? So don’t _ever_ think that I don’t want to be with you or could do better.”

“I guess you’ve made up your mind,” Murray gave a little smile. “Better do what my omega says.”

Alexei grinned at him. “Absolutely right. Now let’s go home.” He opened the package of cherry candy and pulled one out. “Look it’s a little bundle of cherries.”

“Artificially flavored cherries.” Murray shook his head and pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road again. “You’re gonna get cavities from those, I never thought I’d have to tell a grown man that.” Alexei popped the gummy into his mouth and smiled. Murray glanced over at him again. “You are...a mystery, my darling.” Alexei just continued to smile as he chewed. Murray rolled his eyes and leaned over to turn on some music, big band music started playing from the speakers. 

“I like this music, it’s very upbeat,” Alexei told him and reached into his bag of candy for another cherry, “Want one?” Murray gave him a look and shook his head soundlessly. The big band music carried them home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see...this fic has a rating now ;D you gotta wait next chapter though.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I earn that Mature rating ;D

Alexei collapsed on the couch when they got back to the bunker. “Can we watch Looney Tunes now?” He asked, his voice muffled by the cushion. Murray was in the kitchen putting away the KFC. 

“Yeah, I’m gonna put your clothes in the wash though,” Murray said as he went from the kitchen to the bedroom. Soon Alexei felt something light fall on his head. He lifted his head and Murray was standing in front of him. “There’s one of my robes, put that on and I’ll put your clothes in.”

Alexei sat up and pulled off his shirt, handing it to Murray with a smile. Murray took it slowly. “If you’re gonna do the same to your pants, I’m not gonna look away this time.” Alexei grabbed the robe and pulled it on, tying it around the front before standing to pull off his pants. The robe was short, which Alexei was sure that Murray chose on purpose, but it adequately covered everything. He gave Murray his pajama pants with a smile and sat back down. He was absolutely looking forward to getting some new clothes tomorrow. 

Murray gave him a look and went to put the clothes in the washer. Alexei was feeling a little exposed, his thighs a creamy white which said how much sun he truly got down in the basement of Starcourt. Maybe he could get a tan, he never had one of those before, maybe it would be nice. He wondered how he would look all golden with a tan? Maybe he’d look weird, he’d never seen himself anything other than a pale white before. Everyone was pale in Russia so it didn’t matter much.

While Murray was still putting the wash in, Alexei grabbed the remote control from on the coffee table and turned it on. The power button was a universal symbol. He smiled when Woody Woodpecker popped up on the screen, it seemed as though Murray never changed it back. He put the remote back on the table and sat back to watch, a smile on his face. 

Murray walked back into the living room, looking from the tv to Alexei. Alexei smiled at him and patted the seat next to him. “Come here and watch with me.” 

He sighed but went to sit over by Alexei’s side. “You know I should be packing more, and you could be helping me.”

“I think we did enough work today, we should be able to relax for a little bit, yeah?” Alexei looked over at him before leaning against him. “Besides, don’t you want to be close to me in this short robe of yours?” He said in a low tone which caused Murray to raise his eyebrow at him. 

Alexei never tried or wanted to seduce someone before. Yet there he was, trailing a finger up his thigh while Woody Woodpecker cartoons played in the background. Murray watched the progression of the finger quite closely, his eyes growing wider the further up Alexei’s thigh it went.

Just as he reached the edge of the short robe he had on, Alexei moved his hand away and gave a fake yawn and stretch. Maybe Murray was just too easy. Hopefully only for him, he hoped that the other wasn’t this easy for other people.

While his hands were still up in the air from stretching, Murray turned and put his hands on either side of his hips on the couch, leaning in closely. “You. Are evil. Tempting me this much.”

Alexei smiled and put his arms down and wrapped them around Murray’s shoulders. “Then why don’t you do something about it... _alpha._ ” He licked his lips in anticipation.

“I’m trying to be good, you know. And you just ruin all my hard work,” Murray muttered at him, his eyes flicking down to Alexei’s lips a few times while he talked.

“Maybe I’d stop being so tempting if you’d actually do something...you do want me, right?” Alexei asked him, searching his face. “Because I’ll stop if you don’t, I just thought...”

Murray pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “Of course I want you. You’re the only thing that’s been on my mind recently, and that’s saying a lot, I hope you know. I just don’t want you to regret it.”

“What’s there to regret?” Alexei shook his head. “You’re my alpha. If I was forced to be with you, I wouldn’t be offering myself up like this. If I didn’t want you, I wouldn’t try so hard to make you want me.”

“What you’re saying is that I should stop trying to go slow for you,” Murray said and Alexei nodded slowly. “I just can’t believe you want _me_. I just don’t feel worthy of you.”

“Why don’t you let me decide what I’m worthy of, hm?” Alexei told him softly, his fingers curling in the bottom of Murray’s hair. 

Murray nodded. “That’s fair.” He pulled away causing Alexei to frown. “I’ll be right back,” he told him and went into the bedroom for a few minutes. He came back wearing a robe, longer than the one he gave Alexei, “Had to level the playing field, Alyosha.” He grinned and sat back down next to him. 

Alexei grinned moved quickly to straddle him, sitting down on Murray’s thighs. Murray sucked in a breath, his hands automatically coming to Alexei’s hips. “Not what I was expecting,” Murray let out. 

“No good?” Alexei tilted his head and gave a little frown. 

“No, good. Just not what I expected.” Murray relaxed a little bit as he watched Alexei. 

“What were you expecting?” Alexei asked, tilting his head the other way. 

“I don’t know,” Murray said and Alexei smiled, taking off both of their glasses gently and folding them up, leaning back to put them on the coffee table. “I need those to see...” 

Alexei shook his head and wrapped his arms around the other’s neck, moving in close to kiss him softly. Murray made a little noise and wrapped his arms tighter around Alexei as they kissed softly. This was nice, surprisingly nice, but Alexei didn’t think it would be as nice with someone else. It was only nice because he was with Murray, who seemed to know just how to hold him. His hands were large and warm on his hips, grounding him there as they kissed. 

He made a little noise in the back of his throat when Murray pulled away. “You’re gonna get beard burn,” Murray told him softly, one hand coming up to press a thumb against the corner of Alexei’s mouth. He turned his head to kiss the pad of Murray’s thumb with a smile. “I don’t think you care, do you?” 

“No.” Alexei smiled and opened his mouth to lick at the tip of his thumb. 

He could see Murray’s eyes darken at that little move. “You’re in a mood, aren’t you?” Murray smiled, amused. 

“I don’t know, I’ve never felt this way before,” Alexei admitted quietly. “Never felt this way for anyone else.” He sat back a little and looked at him curiously. “Maybe because I’m off my blockers…” He shrugged and pressed back in to continue kissing him. 

Murray pulled away again. “So you’re only acting like this because you-”

“I’m acting like this because I want you. Me being off my blockers might be affecting my sex drive but not my decision making. Now kiss me some more,” Alexei demanded. 

Murray couldn’t argue with that and pulled him into another kiss, deeper than the ones before, making Alexei groan in pleasure. Alexei pressed his body to Murray’s, pressing him back against the couch. His nerve endings were alight, he just wanted Murray to touch him all over and never stop. 

This time it was Alexei’s turn to pull away, blushing high on his cheekbones. He started to feel himself slicking up, something that he hadn’t felt in a long while. It was a few seconds later that Murray smelled him. “Oh...” Murray scented the air, his eyes darkening. “You smell...amazing.” He was looking at Alexei as if it was the first time he had ever smelled someone so wonderful before. 

“Sorry, kissing you feels nice,” Alexei softly explained. “I haven’t, uh...this hasn’t happened in a long time.” With the blockers, Alexei was basically living his life as a beta, ever since he first presented, it had been a while since he was truly off of them long enough to produce slick. 

He started to make a move to get off of him, embarrassed, but Murray tightened his grip. “No, stay. I like it,” Murray told him softly. “You smell...very good, Alyosha.” Murray looked at him, amazement sparkled in his eyes. 

“Well,” Alexei said, trying to make light of the moment. “I’m glad my own alpha likes my scent.” He smiled, looking down at Murray softly. “Do you see now that I want you? I never lied about that.”

“Meaning you’ve lied to me about something else?” Murray cocked an eyebrow at him and gave him a sly grin. He moved his hands down to grip Alexei’s asscheeks, licking his lips. 

“No, that’s not what I meant!” Alexei gasped as Murray grabbed him. “You know that’s not what I meant.” He pushed himself up on his knees and pressed his body against Murray’s, looking down at him. “Why do you have to be this way?” He leaned his head down to press his nose against Murray’s to look at him. 

“What way? I don’t know what you mean?” Murray grinned up at him. 

“Contrary.” Alexei shook his head a little, making the tips of their noses rub together slightly.

Murray looked at him for a second before saying, “I don’t know that word...” Alexei tutted and moved to kiss him slowly, hands coming up to cup the back of Murray’s head. After a moment of indulgence, they pulled away, Murray sighing. “You make me feel like a teenager again.”

“Did you do this when you were a teenager?” Alexei asked, not thinking that Murray would have been that type of teen.

“No, but I wish I did,” he answered before thinking a second. “Actually no, I hated everyone I went to school with, there was no one back then that I would want to do this with.” Alexei nodded, the same way with him, all of the alphas he went to school with were bull-headed, and he wasn’t interested in the girls at all. 

Alexei nodded and sat down, eyes going wide. He was sitting closer than he was before to the other man, letting him know that it wasn’t only him that was turned on. “Oh...” He licked his lips. “I like the way you feel against me.” He moved his hands down to the tie in Murray’s robe, looking at him questioningly.

Murray looked down at his hands then up at Alexei’s face. “All yours, sweetheart.” 

“All mine?” Alexei just kept looking at him. “Are you?“ Murray nodded at him and Alexei smiled and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. “I’m yours too, for what it’s worth.” With that, Alexei quickly untied the loose knot in Murray’s robe belt 

“Don’t be so scared, it’s just a dick. You have one too.” Murray gave a little eyeroll and pulled his robe apart. 

Alexei gave him a look. “I’m not scared, I’ve just never seen an alpha dick up close before. Thankfully.” He looked down at Murray’s cock, it looked like his except for the bulb at the base that was the marking for where his knot would grow. He was also circumcised, unlike Alexei. Murray’s dick was thick, curving up at a pleasing angle. Alexei had a feeling he would enjoy it very much.

Alexei licked his lips and looked up at Murray, who was watching him closely. “Thoughts?” He asked and Alexei grinned. 

“About what?” Alexei tilted his head as he started to untie his own robe, “it’s just a dick.” Murray gave him a look and Alexei grinned wider. Alexei was getting the feeling that the other didn’t like having his own words thrown back against him. He trailed a finger down Murray’s chest. “So much hair...” It went all the way down to his stomach then thinned a little and spread out. “I like it.” Alexei told him with a smile, sensing that Murray was little nervous at showing off his body like that. “You’re fluffy.” 

“Gee, thanks,” Murray said, his hands were still on Alexei’s ass, which he squeezed lightly. “Have I told you that your ass is the stuff of legends?” Alexei let out a breath and pressed back into Murray’s hands, wiggling his hips a little. “No lie. I almost couldn’t keep my hands to myself when I first saw it.”

Alexei rolled his eyes and pressed his body against Murray’s with a little sigh. He reached down and grabbed both of their dicks in his hand. Of course Murray was bigger than he was, since Murray was an alpha after all, but Alexei’s didn’t look too small in comparison. He moaned as he pressed them together. 

As Alexei started to stroke both of their cocks together slowly, Murray slipped a finger between Alexei’s ass cheeks. “Wow, you’re really getting wet,” he said quietly, running the pad of his finger through the slick. He accidentally went farther than he was going to and ran his finger across Alexei’s hole, making the omega gasp loudly. “Oops.”

Just for that Alexei squeezed a little bit harder when his hand made it up to Murray’s cock head. Two could play at that game. 

“I hope you know, this means war,” Murray grinned at him and ran his finger over his hole again and Alexei shuddered in his arms. Alexei bit his bottom lip as he watched Murray, moving to stroke him exclusively, using a twisting move at the head that was making Murray squirm.

When Murray started to press a little firmer on Alexei’s hole, Alexei moved to hide his whimpers in Murray’s mouth. He almost wanted to sit on his cock and take his pleasure that way, but Alexei wanted their first time to be in a bed, possibly at their new home. He pressed back against Murray’s finger, it dipping in barely but causing a new wave of slick to gush out of him. 

Murray captured his lips in a moan, thrusting into Alexei’s hand and gripping him tight against him, as if he would leave. He said something in English, breathing hard. Alexei started to rock his hips, moving back against Murray’s finger and forward to brush against his cock. 

“Murray please...” Alexei moaned, closing his eyes as he rocked against him. 

“Please what?” Murray grinned, knowing he’d won. “Tell me, my sweet boy.” Alexei gasped then cried out as he came between them. 

“Oh fuck...” Alexei rested his forehead against Murray’s, breathing hard. He started to giggle a little, smiling widely. 

“Wow...” Murray smiled at him, watching him. “You’re beautiful.” Alexei shook his head a little and pressed a kiss to Murray’s mouth. 

He pulled back a little and gave him a smile. “Let me take care of you, alpha.” Before Murray could say anything, Alexei was moving off of him and kneeling on the couch beside him. He gave him a smirk and lowered his head to take the head of Murray’s cock into his mouth. Alexei had never done anything like this before so he really didn’t know what to expect. At least his fear of it not tasting very good was abated. It was no cherry slurpee but it wasn’t terrible either. 

“Fuck...you’re….you’re gonna….” Murray said the muttered something in English, his Russian apparently failing him. Alexei looked up at him and he could tell that Murray was barely holding it together. He slurped and licked at the head of Murray’s cock, running his tongue across the slit at the top in his exploration. Murray jolted when he did that, so he did it again, just because.

Murray groaned above him, his hand coming down to tangle in Alexei’s curls. Alexei took the base of Murray’s cock into his hand to hold it steady as he brought his mouth down a little further, past the head. He couldn’t get much in his mouth at the moment, he could already tell Murray was close and he didn’t want to be caught off guard and choke. Sure enough, Murray let out a gasp, followed by a moan as he started coming, his hand tightening in Alexei’s hair. The first splash of come on his tongue made Alexei jerk back a little. It was salty and bitter, not at all like the sweet things that he usually favored. 

If he pulled off, come would get everywhere, especially on his face, so Alexei swallowed as fast as he could. Some come still leaked out from the corner of his mouth. He pulled away gasping and licking his lips. 

“Alyosha,” Murray looked at him in awe, bringing a thumb up to catch what had spilled out of the corner of his mouth. Alexei sucked his thumb into his mouth. “I’m too old to get it up that fast outside of rut...”

Alexei pulled the thumb out of his mouth with a smile, resting back against the couch beside Murray. “My bear…” He said with a sigh, looking at him softly. 

“Please don’t tell me that’s gonna stick as a pet name.” Murray looked at him and shook his head. He lifted his arm up so that Alexei could cuddle to his side. 

“Why not? You’re furry like a bear.” Alexei smiled at him. “You snore like a bear-- where are you going?” Alexei frowned as Murray pulled away and stood up. 

“Gonna go clean...my fur.” Murray gave him a look but Alexei was already engrossed in the cartoons on tv. A few minutes later, a wet washcloth slapped Alexei in the face. He looked over to where Murray was standing and trying to play innocent. 

“Oi!” Alexei gave him a look. “Now my glasses are wet.” He quickly cleaned off his chest, although most of the come landed on Murray, and tossed the washcloth back. 

“Ooh, good aim.” Murray said as Alexei cleaned his glasses on his robe. “No wonder you won at the carnival.”

“There was nothing to do but play darts or read in our down time.” Alexei shrugged, putting back on his glasses. “So I got pretty good at it.”

“You had downtime?” Murray asked, walking back and sitting beside him on the couch. “Wow, didn’t think they offered that in Russia.” Alexei knew he was joking of course but he still gave him a look. “Joking, sweetheart.”

“I don’t know why I like you, you’re so mean to me, all the time.” Alexei moved to cuddle up to his side again. “But you’re warm and fuzzy, and that was nice what we just did, so I guess I’ll stay.”

Murray wrapped an arm around him and kissed his head. “Good, I’m glad. And you tease me just as much as I tease you. Who knew Russians couldn’t take a joke-” Alexei started to move away from him but Murray caught him by the waist. “Ah ah no, stay.”

Alexei turned to him, “I hate you.”

“No you don’t,” Murray said with a knowing smile.

“...you’re right.” Alexei moved to give him a soft kiss. “Doesn’t mean you aren’t incorrigible.”

“Hm, I don’t know that word in Russian either,” Murray said thoughtfully. Alexei just wrapped his arms around him and kissed his cheek. They settled against each other with a sigh.


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning, Murray was up before Alexei again. They had gone to bed last night after finishing up the bucket of chicken and sides, dropping onto the bed with full stomachs before passing out. It was good that they got along well, they wouldn’t have to change their habits much when they finally, officially, moved in together.

Alexei walked sleepily out in order to achieve coffee. Murray watched him with a smile as he poured cream and sugar into his mug. “Ready for Indianapolis today?”

“No.” Alexei made a face. “I don’t like shopping.” He sipped his coffee with a sigh. 

“Well you might like shopping here, we have more choices,” Murray told him. “It should be fun. And then we can never do it again.” At least there was that. Just get enough to for Alexei to get started and then they could pick up other stuff along the way. 

“I guess. You’ll have to keep me entertained.” Alexei smiled and sipped his coffee again, giving Murray a look. What they did last night was still on his mind. It was good, it seemed like they both needed that and it was interesting to see how his body reacted to the alpha. 

“Well, we have an early start today, which is why we’re up at his hour.” Alexei hadn’t looked at the clock when he got up, he just followed the smell of coffee. Murray continued, “We should be able to get to Indianapolis by the time the shops open. We could have shopped at Starcourt if certain things didn’t happen.”

Alexei just shrugged, he wasn’t the monster that destroyed the place.

“It’s okay, Indianapolis has more selection.” Murray shrugged. “Let me go get your clothes and we can go.”

“What about breakfast?” Alexei asked with a small frown. Yeah they ate a lot yesterday but today was a new day and Alexei was hungry. 

“I’m gonna introduce you to something new today, it’s called a _diner_ ,” Murray told him with a smile as he passed him to go get Alexei’s clothes from the dryer.

“Diner.” Alexei tried out the word, “Is it good food? Breakfast food?” He followed Murray, still sipping his coffee. 

“Well its food...it’s not the best but it’s good enough.” Murray shrugged and handed him his clothes. “There’s one not far from here, I used to go all the time if I didn’t want to make breakfast. Get dressed and we can go. They have coffee there,” he said, taking the mug from Alexei with a smile.

Alexei watched his half full mug of coffee go with a frown. He quickly pulled off his robe and pulled on the clean clothes. At least he was going to get some more clothes to wear today, it would make him feel more comfortable going out and being seen in public. He walked back to the kitchen, Murray had already dressed for the day, probably wanting to get an early start. 

“Ready?” Murray asked him, “So here’s the plan, we go to the diner for breakfast, then we drive to Indianapolis, hit the bank and then we can shop.” 

Alexei nodded. “We also need to look at stuff for the house, hopefully get a bed delivered? Do they do that?”

“Yeah, definitely.” Murray nodded as he puttered around the kitchen, putting things away. “This is gonna be a long day, sweetheart, I hope you’re ready for it.”

“I am but I’m not. Does that make sense?” Alexei asked, catching Murray in his arms before he moved away from him again and gave him a kiss. 

“It makes sense.” Murray nodded and moved closer to him to get another kiss. “You taste like coffee.” He grinned at him before moving away. 

“You should get some new clothes too,” Alexei suggested. “It looked like you haven’t updated your wardrobe since the 70’s.”

“Because I _haven’t_ updated my wardrobe since the 70s.” Murray gave him a look and moved away. “Are you ready? Let’s go.” Alexei hurried to get his shoes on, another thing that he needed to buy, and followed Murray out the door. 

They both got into the car and Murray pulled out of the driveway. Murray glanced over at him. “I’ll have to help you with the menu at the diner, or you can decide what you want now?”

“What is there?” Alexei asked him, “Normal breakfast stuff?”

“Yeah, you want like sausage, eggs, hashbrowns? Or pancakes?” Murray asked, “I think they have bacon instead of sausage too, waffles...or an omelette like what you had yesterday?”

Alexei made a face as he thought about what he wanted. “What are you gonna have? I’ll just get that.”

“Probably the grand slam. Eggs, bacon, hashbrowns.” Murray nodded. “I always get that, it’s good.”

“I’ll get that then. And coffee.” Alexei smiled over at him. “Is it fancy coffee like yours?”

“Nah, but it gets the job done. You don’t go to a diner for fancy coffee.”

“Is it some sort of an American tradition? Like Thanksgiving?” He had heard about Thanksgiving, it was an excuse for Americans to come together and stuff their faces. 

“Sorta.” Murray considered it for a second. “It makes more sense on the west coast. You can drive for hours and just see waffle houses and gas stations.”

“Ah, kinda like rural Russia in some ways.” Alexei nodded. “With less bears.” He grinned over at him.

“Less bears. More **coyotes**.” Murray smiled. 

“Oh like the roadrunner cartoons!” Alexei grinned at him. 

“...yes.” Murray confirmed. “I guess those cartoons are good for something after all.” Alexei grinned wider at that, he didn’t know why Murray didn’t see that Alexei was always right. 

A few minutes later they pulled into the parking lot of the diner. It was a strange shape, longer than it was wide, and made out of what looked like metal? Like a trailer or something, but a very big trailer. 

“It’s been around since the 50’s I believe,” Murray said before he got out of the car, Alexei was right behind him. “It’s kinda a themed diner, either that or they just never updated their look.”

The bell rang as they walked in and Murray led them to a booth in the back. A waitress walked over with two menus, and filled up their mugs with coffee. The waitress spoke to Murray like she knew him, fluttering her fake eyelashes at him and smiling. She didn’t look at Alexei at all before she turned and left to put in the order.

“She’s obvious,” Alexei muttered, knowing that Murray would hear him.

“What do you mean?” Murray casually looked through the menu, even though he already ordered for both of them.

“You know what I mean.” Alexei gave him a look. “Even _I_ could see that she was flirting with you.”

“Hmm, I wasn’t paying attention,” Murray glanced up at him. “Are you jealous?”

Alexei gave him a look. Yes he was jealous, Murray was _his_ alpha. But what should he say? What would get him the best response from Murray? Alexei played out the scenarios in his head. 

If he said ‘no I’m not jealous’ then maybe Murray would actively flirt back with the waitress. He couldn’t have that. But if he said ‘yes,’ then what? Maybe Murray would ask him why….

“Yes,” Alexei told him, “because you’re my alpha, you should tell her that you’re not on the market.” He explained while opening his menu to look at the pictures. 

Murray watched him with a grin. “I should do that, huh?” 

Alexei glanced up at him and shrugged. “It’s not like you’ll see her again, best to let her down easy.”

“Oh I should?” Murray asked and when Alexei looked up at him again, he was still smiling. “What’s the difference, I’m never gonna see her again. Not many people flirt with me you know.”

“I know. That’s good. You’re mine,” Alexei told him as he fixed his mug of coffee with cream and sugar. “Do you really want to argue with me on that fact?”

Murray tilted his head a little bit in consideration. “No, I don’t, you’re right.” Alexei gave him a look like ‘yeah that’s what I thought’ as he sipped his coffee. 

Soon the waitress came back with their plates, huge plates full of hot greasy food that only America could provide. Alexei was more than ready to dig in, licking his lips in anticipation, but first he looked to Murray to make sure he did what he was told. 

Murray glanced over at Alexei before looking back up at the waitress with a smile. He stated talking to her in English and seemed to be talking about the right thing because the waitress looked back at him with a small smile. She nodded back at Murray, said a few things that Alexei didn’t understand, and turned to leave. 

Alexei leaned over the table. “What did you say to her?”

“That you’re very special to me and you’re going to be my omega.” Murray shrugged and Alexei smiled at him. “Did I do good?”

“Perfect.” Alexei beamed at him and they started eating. “So what’s in Indianapolis? Where are you going to take me?” He asked after a few minutes of silence. 

“Well, there’s a lot of sports related things in the city. The Indianapolis 500 is a big one.” Murray started, munching on some bacon. “That’s a racecar thing.” He mentioned. “I’ve only been to the city once or twice so I don’t really know what sort of interesting things there are...”

“Then why don’t we go to Chicago instead?” Alexei suggested. “You can show me around.”

Murray sat back in the booth with a sigh, looking at Alexei. “It’s a lot longer way to Chicago.” 

“Yeah but you know it better...” Alexei tried to push the idea on him. “And Chicago style pizza.” He hoped that was tempting enough for the other.

Murray sighed again. “I might have to call and tell you know who where we’re going.” Meaning the government of course. “I doubt they would just let us...go.”

“Did you get approval for Indianapolis?” Alexei looked at him, he didn’t remember Murray being on the phone at all during their time together. 

“Well...no, I just figured it was close enough for them not to worry. Chicago is another matter.” Murray shrugged. “There’s a phone outside, I’ll call and tell them. It’s not like they can actually stop us from going or anything, but...I rather not have them thinking we’re doing anything suspicious behind their back.”

“Of course, we can do it in front of their backs.” They both shared a smile. Not that they would be doing anything remotely suspicious, it was still funny to think of doing it in clear view of the mindful eyes of the government.

“If you really want to go, then I guess we can. I know there’s a mall there that might be more efficient to shop at.” Murray shrugged. 

“Do you not want to go back?” Alexei asked him softly. “Indianapolis is fine...”

“No its...I just memories. It’s a big city, so it’s not like I’ll run into anyone I used to work with or anything,” Murray explained. “I’ve just been avoiding it.”

“Well, we can make some new memories.” Alexei smiled at him, nudging his foot with his own under the table.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey yall. Might change these updates to ever 2nd day, since my writing has slowed down. I wanna keep giving you guys longish chapter so...


	10. Chapter 10

Once they finished eating and got the check, Alexei couldn’t believe he ate the whole plate full of food, they were back on the road. Alexei put his hand on his full stomach and groaned. “Too much,” he whined. 

“Welcome to America.” Murray grinned over at him. “You’ll work that off, don’t worry. Have you actually walked around a mall before? It’s a lot of walking-”

“ _ You _ have been to one?” Alexei asked him. That surprised him, he didn’t think Murray was the type.

“Starcourt, I had to go see what all the hype was about.” Murray shrugged. “Capitalism at its finest. I did get an ice cream cone from Scoops Ahoy. That Steve kid was working there. I’m gonna miss their USS Butterscotch...” He sighed. 

“Who is Steve?” Maybe one of the kids that was involved with what happened that night? 

“I’m sure you’ll meet him. We like Steve.” Murray glanced over at him. “He’s part of the group...you know the group of kids who fight monsters in their free time?”

“Oh. Interesting.” Alexei shook his head. He hoped all that was done and over with, he didn’t want to face a big fleshy goo monster in the future. 

Murray sighed, “I’m sure Joyce will introduce you to everyone. She has you in her talons now, you won’t be able to get away.”

“You either.” Alexei pointed out. “We’re in this together.”

“Yes, but she push me into doing things because she’s knows how I am,” Murray told him. 

“Unless I tell her that you’re actually soft and just putting on an act most of the time.” Alexei raised his eyebrow at him. 

“No you won’t because you don’t speak English.”

“I don’t speak English _ yet, _ ” Alexei grinned at him. “I’m sure with a Russian to English dictionary, I can  _ learn _ .” 

“I guess we can look for one when we’re out,” Murray muttered then changed the subject. “Uncle Sam said it was okay to go to Chicago and they appreciated the heads up.” 

Alexei frowned over at him. “Who?”

“It’s uh, another name for our government,” Murray explained. “Uncle Sam, born on the fourth of July.” Alexei made a face and looked out the window, Americans were weird. Murray continued, “It was a way to humanize the government so that people trusted it more.”

“In Russia, we just get carried away in the night if we disapprove,” Alexei said slyly. “At least there’s no lying involved. Everyone knows what can happen, obedience through fear.”

“Well...sometimes it’s not much different here,” Murray told him. “Depends on who you are and where you are. The system works better for some people.” He sighed and shook his head, silent for a moment. “Once you can read in English, we can get you a library card, and you can check out all the books you want on American history and I can tell you what’s wrong with them.”

Alexei smiled over at him. “Because you know better than a book?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. Murray definitely thought highly of himself. 

“History is told by the winners and mostly written so that the United States looks good,” Murray began. “I’m sure you’ll see that once you start reading about it.”

“If I don’t, I always have you to tell me the truth,” Alexei smiled at him from the passenger’s seat. He rested his head back on the head rest to just look at Murray as he drove. “You know...you’re handsome.”

Murray glanced over at him and gave a smile. “Wow, thanks, I’m so glad that  _ my omega _ thinks that I’m handsome.”

“Well if you’re gonna be that way, I take it back,” Alexei told him, turning his head and looking out the window. “You’re awful.”

“That’s more like it,” Murray grinned over at him and reached over to turn on the radio, low so they could still talk. 

“You know people are going to find out.” Alexei looked back at him. “That you’re not that bad. And I’m not going to tell them otherwise. Uncle Murray.” He grinned at him widely.

Murray groaned, “You’re a monster, we work so well together.” He reached over and put a hand on Alexei’s knee and squeezed lightly.

Alexei smiled fondly over at him. “We do, don’t we? We’re a good match.”

“I know, my idea was a good one, you can say it,” Murray glanced over at him, taking his hand off of Alexei’s knee to shift gears.

“I can, but should I? Don’t you have a big enough ego already?” Alexei asked, raising his eyebrow at him. “I know, I know, it’s all a front for your self consciousness and you push people away because you got hurt before and don’t want that to happen again.” 

Murray glanced over at him. “Ouch...a little too close to home.”

“But it’s true.” Alexei toes off his shoes and stretched his legs in front of him. “Who were they? Tell me?” His voice was much softer. 

Murray let out a sigh and turned the music off. It took him a few seconds to start talking again. “I worked with her at the Chicago Sun. She was smart, asked the right questions, knew what leads to pursue. She didn’t deal with anyone’s bullshit, she was one of the top in our field.” He took in a breath and let it out slowly. “We were on a story together. Long story short it turned out to be something that we shouldn’t have gotten into, and when I came back the next day she was-”

“Gone?” Alexei asked. He heard about it all the time in Russia, someone looks too close and suddenly they didn’t exist anymore.

“No, she acted like nothing ever happened, like she had forgotten everything we discovered. It was like there was a hole where her memory was. Every time I tried to talk to her about something regarding the case, her eyes would go blank and she would just stare into the distance. Then when I brought it to the attention of our editors, they acted like they never even heard of the story and reprimanded me for going off to investigate on my own. I don’t know why it wasn’t me instead of her.” He shook his head. 

“I’m sorry,” Alexei said softly. “Were you two...close?”

“She was my friend,” Murray told him. “A beta. I guess I liked her in some romantic capacity but we were never a  _ thing _ .” He looked over at him. “She was kinda like Joyce, only more put together.”

“Like Joyce?” Alexei turned to look at him. 

“No, I said  _ kinda _ like Joyce.” Murray gave him a look. “She wanted to help people and get to the bottom of things. She was smart not...eccentric.”

Alexei gave him a look before turning to look out the window. “How far to Chicago?” He asked. 

“It’s one hundred and six miles to Chicago, we have a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses,” Murray replied with a grin and Alexei looked over at him with a confused expression on his face. 

“It’s not dark outside? What are you talking about? Have you finally gone insane?” Alexei shook his head. 

“No...no, it’s a quote, we’ll have to watch the movie,” Murray glanced over at him, still smiling. “It’s gonna be a few hours drive, so get comfortable.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Murray quoted Blues Brothers. Sorry about the delay in chapters, writing is kinda slow going at the moment.


	11. Chapter 11

A few hours into the drive, Alexei started to complain. He had switched positions in the passenger’s seat many times and now had his legs up sitting criss cross in the seat, his seatbelt barely on. 

“Wow, I never knew you were a whiny _ baby _ .” Murray glanced over at him. They were on the freeway now, maybe not even half an hour to their destination. Alexei looked over at him and whined again, he hated sitting still for too long. “Would you like to run along side the car instead? Just to stretch your legs?”

Alexei just turned to pout at him. Murray glanced over at him again, “Nah that doesn’t work on me, I’m immune.”

“Even from your own omega?” Alexei asked then continued his pout.

“Nope, you need a heart for that to work, I don’t have one.” Murray smiled as he looked ahead at the road, they were starting to see some of the outskirts of the city now. 

“Liar.” Alexei rolled his eyes. “You’re a liar Murray….what’s your middle name?”

“Why would I tell you that?”

“Because I’m your omega.” 

“Exactly, you’ll use it against me.”

Alexei let out a surprised gasp. “You don’t trust me. Your own omega.” He shook his head slowly. “What did I ever do to deserve this sort of treatment?”

“Do you want me to start at the beginning or just do today?” Murray glanced over at him with a smile. 

“...Wait, what did I do today?” Alexei asked, now truly wondering if he  _ actually _ did something.

Murray gave a little laugh and shook his head. “Alyosha, I’m joking.”

“...I know.” Although he had his doubts at the end there. “I was just...testing you.” Yes, he meant to do that all along, of course.

“Uh huh,” Murray said, not convinced. “You were really worried that you did something today, weren’t you?”

Alexei crossed his arms over his chest. “No of course not.” He looked out the window to see more and more buildings were starting to clump closer to one another. It already looked much more populated than Hawkins was. 

Murray glanced over at him again. “You were. You know I’d tell you if anything was wrong, right? I wouldn’t just...we tell each other things, right? Communication.”

Alexei looked over him with a smile. “Da, like functional adults.”

“Good.” Murray reached over for Alexei’s hand, which he happily provided. He squeezed his hand tight and was glad that Murray wasn’t hesitant about giving him little touches like that. “What are you thinking about? You’ve been quiet for too long.”

Alexei scoffed at that. He knew how to be quiet. “I’m thinking that I’m glad you like to touch me like this.” He held up their conjoined hands. “I’ve spent so long without this sort of thing, it feels really nice to have it now.”

“I know you probably didn’t expect me to be a cuddler. But I’m not one to deny myself something that feels nice.” Murray shrugged. 

“Good, I like it a lot.” Alexei smiled at him and brought their hands up to kiss the back of Murray’s hand. 

“You’re sweet.” Murray shook his head. “Can’t believe I ended up with someone as sweet as you.”

“I’m not all sweet.” Alexei gave him a sharp grin. “You know that.”

“I do, and I like that part of you too.” Murray glanced over at him with a smile. It was like they were really meant for each other. 

Alexei looked out the window to watch the high buildings and the people on the sidewalks. There were so many people out. Maybe this was another side of America, just like Hawkins was the small town life, this was the city life. Maybe by the end of the day Alexei would figure out which one he liked better. 

“First stop is the bank,” Murray said as he turned into the small parking lot of a tall building. He parked and looked over at Alexei. “You’re coming in, it’s too risky to wait in the car. Someone might see how cute you are and steal you.” Alexei smiled over at him at that. He wasn’t too keen on going inside but he knew that Murray would be doing all the talking, and maybe it would be cool to see the inside of an American bank.

He looked up in awe as they walked up to the tall building. Alexei had seen buildings like this in Moscow but not as many as there were here, and not nearly as tall. Murray opened the door for him and they walked into the shiny inside of the bank. There were intimidating looking armed guard around the lobby and nice shiny floors that Alexei almost could see his reflection in. 

Alexei hurriedly followed Murray to an open banker as he continued to look around. Murray handed over a few things to the banker and started talking to her in English while Alexei was still fascinated with the insides of the lobby. The ceiling was vaulted and he could see where other bankers were busy at their desks or consulting clients. There was a low murmur of people working, papers rustling, phones ringing, yet it was silent in some ways, all the noises echos instead of true sounds.

The banker left for a second and Murray looked at Alexei with a grin. “Fancy huh?” Alexei nodded. Alexei never really had much money for banks in Russia to be much use. Usually he got all his paychecks in cash, it was easier on both sides, considering that checks could be lost, stolen, or forged easily. Only rich people in Russia went to banks, either that or people desperately pleading for loans. 

The banker came back with a stack of bills and started counting them softly while laying them out in front of Murray. It was a lot of money. After she counted them out, she scooped them up and put them in an envelope, handing it over to Murray along with a receipt. “Come on,” Murray said quietly to Alexei as he turned and they started out of the building. 

Once they got back into the car, Murray handed over the bulging envelope. “I got three thousand out, because we’re shopping for furniture too, you know?” Murray started the car. “Anything we don’t use we can just save for a rainy day, I don’t trust banks.”

Alexei opened the envelope just to flick through the stack of bills. He’d never seen so much money before and probably never would again. 

“So, let’s hit the mall first,” Murray told him as he pulled out of the parking lot. “I think the one here is much bigger than Starcourt was, so be prepared for that.” He glanced over at him. “Not all banks are like that here, that one was one of the main branches so it was fancy.” 

“Where are we gonna put all this?” Alexei asked him, keeping the envelope low so it couldn’t be seen through the windows. He didn’t know how safe America was, but he knew that people would do a lot of stuff for this sort of money no matter were they were.

“I’m gonna stick it in my pants,” Murray said causally. Alexei blinked at him and Murray glanced over. “What? No one is going to go fishing there so, it’s probably safer than a bank.” He had a point. “Don’t worry, I’ve done it before.” That raised all sorts of questions that Alexei didn’t know he wanted the answers to. 

“We should have made a list of things we needed,” Alexei said, changing the subject. “Why didn’t you think of this before we came?”

“Because you were the one with the notebooks.” Murray gave him a look. “Why didn’t  _ you _ think of this before we came?”

“I was preoccupied.” Alexei waved him off. 

“Last night? You mean devouring the rest of the mashed potatoes?” Murray raised an eyebrow at him. “Not even sharing, leaving me with  _ none _ .”

“You ate the last drumstick,” Alexei countered. “What was I supposed to do?”

“Not shovel the rest of the mashed potatoes and gravy down your throat.” Murray smiled as he turned and the mall started to appear in the distance. 

Alexei gave him a playful glare. “You left me no choice.” Murray shook his head and turned the van into the large parking lot of the mall. Alexei looked out the window at the large mall, definitely a lot bigger than Starcourt. “Remember you’re getting clothes too.”

Murray made a face as he found a parking spot relatively close to an entrance, it was still early so there weren’t as many cars in the lot as there would be when the day progressed. “Yeah yeah, I remember.” He turned the van off and put of his hand for the envelope of money. Murray took out a few hundreds to stick in his wallet before sticking the envelope in his pants. 

“And you’re sure that’s safe there?” Alexei asked as he watched, amused. 

“Completely.” Murray gave him a look that said he knew what he was talking about and not to ask any more questions. Alexei raised up his hands and started to get out of the car. He wasn’t going to say any more about it.

The inside of the mall was a lot bigger and grander than Starcourt. A domed skylight, neon light, and plants all around with a large water fountain under the skylight. They had walked in through the food court, and Alexei pointed out a Scoops Ahoy to Murray who said, “maybe later,” as they walked past it. 

“Well,” Murray said once they got to the shops section just past the food court. “What do you want to wear?” Alexei gave him an unsure look. “Are you gonna wear button up and khakis all your life?” Murray rolled his eyes at Alexei’s non-reaction as he grabbed this hand and started pulling him towards a store. “You’re in America now, comrade, you have choices.”


	12. Chapter 12

“Alright, you pick out a few things for me and I’ll pick out a few things for you and we can have fun,” Murray suggested. Alexei nodded, curious to see what Murray would pick out for him. 

Alexei didn’t wander too far away from Murray, but he did wander a little in the mens section. He was trying to imagine Murray in a suit but having trouble with it. Murray was more the...jean shorts kinda guy. Alexei rolled his eyes at the image, he couldn’t believe his eyes when Murray opened the door to his bunker in those stupid shorts...not to mention the shotgun pointed at his face. 

There were some nice polos that he wouldn’t mind wearing himself, but again Alexei was having a hard time trying to picture Murray in one. Maybe one of more more eye straining styles…

Murray walked over to him, already having a few items of clothes draped over his arm. “Oh god, did I agree to bond with a prep?” Alexei gave him a look. “You’re not gonna put me in a polo, are you?”

“Well, what else would you wear?” Alexei asked, what was wrong with polo shirts? He liked them...and what was that prep comment about?

“There are regular teeshirts over there.” Murray pointed to where he just came from. “I’ll make sure to not deprive you of your polos, don’t worry.” He pushed Alexei over to the regular shirts. 

Alexei made a face but went over to where the regular tee shirts were, since Murray requested, and pulled out a few that he could see Murray wearing. Bright colors and weird designs. He just hoped that Murray didn’t get something too obnoxious for  _ him _ to wear. Just for fun, Alexei pulled out some dark purple and blue split parachute pants for Murray to try on as well.

Soon they found each other again, even though they weren’t too far away from one another anyway. Murray picked at the parachute pants. “Oh I like those.” Alexei let out a laugh at his reaction, of course he would like the thing that Alexei picked out as a joke. “What? I can totally pull those off.” He started leading Alexei over to the fitting rooms. “Do you want to go first?” He asked as he stepped into an empty fitting room and put all of the clothes he picked for Alexei on one of the hooks. 

“Yeah you go first.” Alexei smiled and handed him the clothes he picked out for Murray. Murray put them on the hook on the other wall and shooed Alexei out, closing the curtain after him. Alexei took a seat nearby and waited. He couldn’t wait to see Murray in those purple pants. 

Soon the curtain was flung back and Murray stepped out to reveal the shirt with orange designs on it as well as the pants. Alexei rolled his eyes. It didn’t go together at all, but for some reason the pants made Murray look younger. 

“Well?” Murray asked as he opened his arms up and spun slowly. “Told you I could pull them off.”

Alexei let out a giggle. “The pants actually look good on you, bear.” 

Murray gave him a look at that name. “That’s not gonna stick, that name better not stick,” he muttered as he walked back into the fitting room and closed the curtains.

Alexei has been trying to get a good pet name for him but he just couldn’t find one that worked for Murray except bear...because he was furry and cuddly. Murray had all sorts of pet names for  _ him _ , and they all seemed to work fine, Alexei didn’t understand why it was so hard for him to pick something that suited Murray.

Murray popped out of the curtain again. “You really don’t have an eye for patterns do you?” He asked, wearing another shirt that Alexei picked out for him with another outrageous pattern on it. Alexei shrugged. 

“I’m not really a pattern person,” Alexei told him. “I like solid colors, less straining on the eyes.”

Murray made a noise and ducked back into the fitting room. “Keeping the pants, everything else is forfeit.” After a few minutes he came back out in the clothes he was wearing when they came in. “Next, I think you’ll like what I got you.” Alexei pushed himself up and walked into the fitting room, closing the curtain behind him. “It’s all shirts,” Murray then told him, his voice closer as if he was waiting just outside the curtain.

Alexei pulled off his shirt and tossed it on the bench inside the small room. The first shirt on top was a pink polo. “Pink? Really?” He pulled it on anyway, it was a little tighter than he liked but it still fit him...when he looked in the mirror it wasn’t as bad as he thought, it was actually a nice color on him. He pulled the curtain back a little so Murray could see. 

“Oh I like that, it looks good on you, darling.” Murray nodded, leaning up against the wall beside the opening to the room.

“It’s not too tight?” Alexei asked, looking down at his torso. 

“No, it’s perfect, try another one on,” Murray said, pulling the curtain closed again. Alexei hung the coral pink polo back up, they were going to get that one, and turned to the next shirt. Next was a red and white striped tee shirt. Alexei was actually surprised at Murray’s choices. He pulled on the shirt, it being a little looser than the polo, and looked in the mirror. 

Murray’s voice started him as he jumped a little and turned to see Murray sticking his head in. “That one looks good too! I’m great at this, as you can see.” 

“Do you want to come in here too?” Alexei asked with a little laugh. Murray ducked his head out for a second before stepping in with Alexei. 

“No one will say anything because I’m your alpha,” Murray explained before he even asked. “We’re getting that one too, try on the next one...” He grabbed the next one to take it off the hanger for Alexei. “I think you’ll like this one.”

Alexei turned and grinned. “Woody!” He took the Woody Woodpecker shirt and gave Murray the other shirt to hang up. It was a gray color with Woody screen printed on the front, the red sleeves gave it a nice contrast. He pulled it on quickly and looked at himself in the mirror with a big smile. 

Murray came up behind him, “I thought you’d like that one,” he said softly. Alexei turned around and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “Oh so you  _ really _ like that one?” He grinned. Alexei turned to look at himself again in the mirror. “It looks good on you too. Not as good as the pink polo... ” Alexei rolled his eyes at him knowing that Murray could see him in the mirror as he moved to pull off the shirt. 

“Was that all?” Alexei asked softly, pulling on his striped shirt and looking over at Murray.

“So far. There are definitely more colors of polos that I think you’d look good in,” Murray said as he gathered the hangers with the shirts on them and they stepped out of the fitting room. Two little old ladies gave them an odd look as they exited but Murray gave them no mind, he was used to people looking at him strangely. 

Murray started pulling out a dark teal polo, a red polo, a light blue one, a green one…Alexei kept taking the shirts as Murray offered them, “Should we just get all the colors?” Alexei asked, raising his eyebrow at him. 

“No, just the colors that look good on you,” Murray said, adding a couple of striped ones as well. “Depends on how often you want to do laundry, sweetheart.” He had a point.

Alexei pulled out a few button ups from another rack as Murray went off to look at something a few feet away. Once he felt like he had enough tops, no bottoms though, he walked over to Murray. “Did you get anything for yourself? Other than those stupid pants?”

Murray scoffed at him, eyeing up what Alexei had added to his own pile. “I found some clothes that I can be seen out in public in, yes.”

“I also need to get...uh underwear?” Alexei mentioned, shifting all the clothes in his arms. It looked like they would only need to stop at one store, which was lucky. 

“I think they only sell the fancy silky kind here,” Murray told him. “We could check.” He started off through the section, Alexei grabbing a few pairs of khakis as they walked past them, knowing that Murray would give him shit over them later. He couldn’t help what he liked. 

Murray held up some dark blue silky boxers. “What do you think?” 

“For you?” Alexei smiled and shrugged. “I think you’d make them work.” Murray shook his head and put them back on the rack. “Why not? You should get them if you want them. What happened to ‘not denying you something the feels nice?’”

“Because I think these are more me.” Murray pulled a pair of white ones with red hearts all over them and Alexei laughed. 

“You’re amazing,” Alexei said as he shook his head. There were obviously no normal packaged underwear there and Alexei wasn’t really sure that he would take to the silk boxers like Murray did. 

They piled their clothes on the counter to check out, the woman gave them both a judgmental look but said nothing as she started scanning their items. Next they would have to find a shop that sold underwear and things because Alexei was tired of wearing those pajama bottoms with nothing underneath, he felt very exposed. 

The cashier put their clothes in one big bag and told Murray the total. Alexei couldn’t imagine what the woman was thinking. Maybe that Murray was buying his affection or something horrible like that. Alexei took the bag silently as Murray paid. 

They were walking out of the store when Murray said, “She probably thought I was your sugar daddy or something.” He snorted. 

“Huh?” What was a syrup father? Maybe Murray wasn’t saying the right words in Russian.

“You know, older men with money who buy things for younger men in order to spend time with them,” Murray explained. 

“Oh,” Alexei laughed. “You said  _ syrup _ daddy, not  _ sugar _ daddy.” Murray let out a huff and Alexei walked close to him. “Are you my sugar daddy, my love?”

“I’m not that much older than you.” Murray obviously didn’t like that connotation. 

“So you’ve told me.” Alexei shook his head, still smiling, amused. “So does this mean I get to call you Daddy now?” He asked as they walked towards another clothing store. 

“If you do I’ll drop kick you right back to Russia,” Murray told him seriously. Alexei just gave him a grin and walked into the next store. 

The store was a lot bigger than the other one they had gone into, with two levels. It seemed to sell homewares as well as clothing and other personal affects. They walked through the large maternity section without a word to one another. They would have to talk about that sooner or later, but both men picked the ‘later’ option. 

They had to walk all the way through the woman’s section before hitting the men’s section, it really was a huge store. Finally they found the packaged men’s underwear. Alexei grabbed a few packs of boxers, trying to decide on the prints when Murray nudged him. “Do you, uh...” He pointed to some ‘preheat’ underwear for male omegas. Alexei grabbed a pack off the shelf and looked at them. He had never used them before because he was always on blockers. 

The packaging was more feminine than the other packaging for men’s underwear. It promised ‘scent blocking technology’ as well as ‘slick capture’ and ‘fine fabric for sensitive preheat skin’. Alexei looked over and shrugged and Murray. “Never used them before, I guess I can try them...” They were definitely more of a brief fit instead of boxers, and came in a few solid colors as well as floral designs mixed in each pack of 4. They were more expensive, of course, than the other men’s underwear, but that was expected. 

Alexei added it to the other packs of underwear he was holding, just the one pack though, he doubted they worked very well, they were probably just regular underwear that claimed to do all the stuff it said on the package. He grabbed a few packs of socks and a couple packs of undershirts. “I think you should get some undershirts too, all the tanks I’ve seen you in were-” He made a face, scrunching up his nose slightly.

“Worn and comfortable,” Murray finished for him before grabbing two packs of tanks and a pack of underwear for himself. He handed Alexei his stuff while taking the bag of clothes from him. “I’ll carry the bag. I think they sell shoes here too.”

“I think they sell everything here,” Alexei said, spotting the shoe department from where they were. “How big is this store anyway?”

“It’s a department store, you could get lost in one. You could also live comfortably in one until you required food. So at least for a day or two,” Murray mentioned as they walked over to the shoes. “That’s America. One stop shopping. And if you pick up any dress shoes I’ll leave you here to find your own way out.”

Alexei stopped and looked back at him. “What’s wrong with dress shoes?”

Murray took a step towards him. “I want you to be comfortable. You don’t have to dress up for work or anything anymore, I just want you to wear what  _ you _ want to wear.”

“And if it’s a button down, khakis, and dress shoes?” Alexei tilted his head slightly. 

“Then I will begrudgingly give you that,” Murray told him and received a quick kiss as a result. “But know this, you won’t caught me dead in casual dress clothes.”

“Not even dead?” Alexei grinned at him as they ventured further into the shoes. 

“Bury me in my robe,” Murray muttered, pausing to look at some nice house slippers.

Alexei picked up some white Adidas sneakers with blue stripes on the side and held them up for Murray’s approval. They were kinda expensive as far as sneakers went, but they were very American and Alexei wanted to fit in, right?

Murray walked over, “Adidas, nice. You sure you want white ones?” Alexei nodded. “Alright, go sit down, I’ll find an attendant.” There was a grouping of neon orange chairs that Alexei went over to sit in. It was really a nice comfy chair, Alexei sank back in it. Maybe they could have chairs that they sank into at their house. 

Murray came back a moment later with a man in tow. “He’s gonna measure your foot,” Murray told him as the attendant knelt down and slid out a metal measuring thing from under the chair. Alexei slid out of his shoe and put his foot on the cold metal.”He wants you to stand up,” Murray instructed. “God your feet are big.” Alexei gave him a look but Murray was already chatting with the other man again. 

The man nodded and went to, Alexei assumed, go get his size of the shoe. Alexei sat back down and looked up at Murray. “Maybe after we buy all this, I can change into it? It’ll be nice to have on real clothes again.”

“Yeah, and then we can go upstairs and look at the stuff for the house.” Murray nodded. “I wanna look at the pants while we’re here too, you’re gonna get a couple of pairs of jeans, like it or not.” Alexei shrugged, he didn’t have anything against jeans, he just usually wore khakis because he was  _ usually _ at work. 

“I need some pajamas too, unlike you, I don’t sleep naked.” Alexei smiled up at him. 

“Just sleep in your underwear, I don’t-” Murray was saying when the worker came back with a shoebox. He said something to him and the man nodded. “He says you can open the pack of socks to try on the shoes.” 

Alexei nodded and carefully pulled open the pack of socks and pulled out a pair. Soon he was stepping into the new shoes. “They feel good.” He stood up and tested them out. “Yeah they fit well.” Murray relayed this to the attendant, who nodded and smiled at both of them before going to go help out someone else.

Alexei put the shoes back in the box and slipped back on the ones he was wearing before. “Why don’t you stay here and I’ll pick out some jeans for you?” Murray said, a twinkle in his eye. 

“It’s not that I don’t trust you with that, but I really don’t,” Alexei replied, gathering everything under his arm. “Besides, you don’t know my size.”

They started walking. “I could guess.”

“You’d get them too tight. Purposefully.” Alexei gave him a knowing look.

“How do you know me this well? We’ve only been together for a few days?” Murray shook his head. “I don’t understand it. Couples can spend  _ years _ together and not know each other like this.”

“Because we’re a good match.” Alexei shrugged. “And actually intelligent adults that know that we need to understand each other in order to live with each other,” he explained as they walked into the section for men’s pants. 

“Good point.” Murray nodded and grinned. “Now what size are you?” Alexei told him his pants size with a smile, it would still be fun to see what the other man picked out for him. 

Alexei managed to pick a few different washes of jeans for himself before Murray came back empty handed. “Nothing?” This surprised Alexei. 

“Nothing that would surprise you.” Murray shrugged. “I did see some track suits at the other end though, I don’t know if-” Alexei was already pushing past him to go see. “Wait, really? That’s an actual thing? Russians and track suits.”

“They’re comfortable,” Alexei told him as he looked through the colors. He’d definitely have to get a black one. Maybe the red one...and a blue one. “Do I look good in green?” He wasn’t opposed to getting a green one too. When he looked over at Murray, the other man was already walking away. “Murray...” He frowned, he actually wanted his input on this. 

Alexei got the green anyway and went to go find where Murray went. When he found him again Murray had a couple pairs of pants slung over his arm. “Do you really need four?” He asked as he looked at what Alexei brought. 

“They’re comfortable,” Alexei said again, shaking his head. “Don’t judge me. You wear jean shorts.”

“Oh, now who’s judging?” Murray gave him a look. “Come on, if you get anymore things you might have to drop your track suits.” Alexei rolled his eyes and followed him up to pay. 


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe? Trigger warning? Alexei gets some unwanted attention from an alpha in this chapter, nothing happens but I'd still like to warn yall just in case you're uncomfortable.

Luckily the cashier was fine with Alexei going into the bathroom to put on his new clothes after they had everything paid for. He looked at himself in the large mirror, of course he chose the Woody shirt to wear first. He definitely looked a lot younger in jeans, he wondered how Murray would react to that. 

When Alexei walked back out into the store, Murray gave him several once overs. “Oh...you look good Alyosha,” he said softly. 

“Feels good to be in real clothes again.” He smiled at him, knowing that he might get more of a reaction from the other when they were alone. 

“Good...good... you look good,” Murray said, distractedly before clearing his throat. “Upstairs?” Alexei smiled and nodded. 

“Okay,” Murray said as they went up the escalator, “Rule is that we both have to agree on it. Sound fair?”

Alexei nodded. “You don’t trust me?” He raised his eyebrows at him. 

“It’s not that, I’m just not gonna live with something I absolutely hate and have to look at it everyday,” Murray told him with a shrug as they got to the top of the escalator and stepped into the home goods section. 

“Well I know your style,” Alexei started, “You’re not putting the war posters on the walls...maybe in the basement.” He touched some soft looking towels right at the entryway.

Murray made a noise at that. “We definitely need to get towels today. Stuff for the bedroom, a couch.”

“Dinner table?” Alexei suggested. 

“Silverware and plates,” Murray nodded. “Let’s just...follow the path around.” He pointed to the floor where a light blue line trailed along the walkway. Alexei nodded and grabbed Murray’s hand, the one that wasn’t holding onto the bags, and started walking. It looked like the first stop was the bathroom supplies. 

“We should just have the same color towels for both bathrooms. It’s easier that way,” Alexei suggested. “Big towels.” He reached out for a dark blue towel on display the same time Murray did. “I’m glad we’re in agreement.” Alexei grinned at him. 

“Four? Or Six?” Murray asked, pulling out a dark blue towel and unfolding it. “Big enough?” 

“Six.” Alexei looked at the size of the towel. “We want extras...that looks big enough. Is there an even bigger size?”

“Jumbo isn’t big enough?” Murray asked him with a raised eyebrow, refolding the towel. 

“Is that jumbo?” Alexei, tilted his head and looked at the towels. “I wonder what the regular size would be… let’s get six of those.” He pulled out five more from the stack and handed them to Murray. “And a different color for the hand towels….”

“Cream?” Murray suggested. 

“I was thinking light gray?” Alexei turned back to look at his options. 

“We could do light gray,” Murray nodded. “I’m guessing not dark gray because...” Alexei gave him a look. They both knew about stains and what caused them and what they would probably use the hand towels for most often. (The answer is cumstains.)

Alexei grabbed four hand towels and put them on top of the larger towels. Murray peeked around the tower of towels and gave him a look. Alexei grinned at him. Surely there was a cart or something. “I’ll be right back,” He said and darted past him. It took him a second to find an abandoned cart, one with a small top and a larger bottom for bigger housewares, but he grabbed it up and wheeled it over to Murray. 

“Oh I thought you’d abandoned me with all these fucking towels,” Murray said, dropping the towels into the top half of the cart. 

“Me? Abandon my alpha? Never.” Alexei grinned as Murray put the bags from their purchases on the bottom of the cart and started wheeling it down the path. “Do we need anything else for the bathroom?” Alexei asked as they walked. 

“Nothing that’s really _necessary_.” Murray shrugged. “Maybe a soap dish for the sink? Toothbrush holders? If you can find something that matches...” Alexei was already walking in between rows of merchandise, too narrow for Murray to follow him with the cart. He came back a second later with a toothbrush holder in the shape of a shark, it’s mouth open to where the toothbrushes were held. “What are you twelve?” 

“It matches our hand towels,” Alexei pointed out. “And it’s neat.”

“We’re adults.”

“Who said adults can’t have nice things?” Alexei presented the shark as the nice thing. 

Murray rolled his eyes and sighed, “Put it in the cart.” Alexei was right though, it did match the color scheme they were going for with the towels. At least in his other hand Alexei had an adult looking gray soap dish. They started walking again and Murray bumped him slightly. “You’re lucky you’re cute, otherwise I don’t know if I would be letting you get all this kids stuff for the house.”

“Oh like you’re any better with your propaganda posters?” Alexei gave him a smile. 

“That ‘s different, it’s an adult interest,” Murray told him as they headed into the kitchen section.

“And every boy who has a fascination with war has an _adult_ interest then?” Alexei gave Murray a look as he glanced over at him. 

“More adult than cartoons, is what I mean,” Murray told him, shaking his head. “You know I don’t really care that you like that crap. And I guess,” He stopped walking to look at Alexei, “I guess our home needs to be a mix of what we _both_ like.”

Alexei nodded. “I guess I can live with having your posters in the bedroom, not just the basement. Compromise, right?”

“Compromise, exactly.” Murray nodded and continued walking again. 

“Red for the kitchen,” Alexei said, picking up a bottle opener with a red handle. 

“Why red?”

“Because kitchen is red.” He shrugged and put a can opener into the cart. “Besides, if I have to spend my time in the kitchen, like a good omega, then I want it red.” Alexei continued as he continued putting red kitchen tools in the cart. 

“You don’t have to be in the kitchen,” Murray told him. “No one said you had to be a homemaker, just because you’re an omega.”

Alexei looked back at him, shoulders slumping a little. “I do and I don’t...”

“We can share house responsibilities. You know I’d never push you do to anything just because you’re an omega. You’re my Alexei first,” Murray told him softly.

“You’re a good man, Murray I don’t know your middle name Bauman,” Alexei said quietly and hugged him tight. 

“It’s Moshe,” Murray muttered. “Murray Moshe Bauman. It’s very Jewish.”

Alexei pulled away and looked at him with a smile. “Murray Moshe Bauman. My little moshy!” He gave a laugh. 

Murray closed his eyes and shook his head. “I’m going to regret telling you, I knew I would.”

“No it’s great, now I have a pet name for you! You have a lot for me, and I’ve been trying to find one that fits you.” Alexei smiled and kissed him softly. “My middle name is just Dmitri. Nothing special.”

“Every part of you is special, Alyosha,” Murray told him softly. “And red is fine for the kitchen.” Alexei kissed him again and went to go grab a set of red and white kitchen towels he saw earlier.

The plates and utensils cause debate. “I don’t want to look down to see a hideous pattern on my plate when I finish my food,” Murray argued. “Something plain. Maybe a cream color? Off white?” Alexei came back with the simplest plates he could find, white with a small blue border. “Perfect. Now get the _plainest_ utensil set you can find. I don’t want to think I’m dining on _fine china_.” It was easier said than done but at the end Alexei found one that wasn’t too over to top. 

They ended up moving the towels to the bottom of the cart to make way for the plates. Four dinner plates, salad plates, bowls, and mugs. And two sets of utensils, because they always got lost, Murray said.

By the time they reached the bedroom section, they were tired and hungry. Alexei leaned against Murray’s shoulder. “I feel like we’ve been in here for five years,” he whined. 

“We’ll go get a snack in the foodcourt after this,” Murray nodded. “We just need to pick out some bed sheets and we can leave the rest for another time.” 

“You pick one out,” Alexei groaned and took off his glasses, “I’m too tired to see things.” Murray scoffed and abandoned his place at the back of the cart, which Alexei took up, leaning against the handle. 

Murray came back seconds later. “This one.” It was a plain brown colored sheet set with a dark brown comforter.

Alexei didn’t even lift his head, “No, not that one.” Murray gave him a look. He finally lifted his head and grinned, putting back on his glasses to actually look at what Murray brought to him. “Don’t you want a pattern or something?”

“Why do we need a pattern bed spread? Our eyes are going to be closed.” Murray put the large package carefully on top of the towels on the bottom of the cart. 

“Not always…”

Murray gave him a look, staring at him for a few seconds before pulling the brown comforter set off of the towels. “You’re absolutely right, we need something that you’ll look good spread out on.” 

While Murray was still looking through the bed sets, a man walked up to Alexei, his hands in his pockets casually. He said something in English to Alexei with a charming smile. “Uh.” Alexei stood up and pressed his glasses up with his forefinger. The other man took another step towards him, saying something that Alexei might have commiserated with if he understood what the other was saying. “ **_Um, I no….no English?_ **”

Unfortunately this didn’t deter the stranger. Alexei glanced over to where Murray disappeared too, hoping he would be back sooner rather than later. As Alexei was looking away the man reached out to touch his hand, which he pulled away quickly. “Don’t do that, I have an Alpha, what’s wrong with you? That’s not how you approach someone! Especially when they tell you they can’t speak English. Stupid American! Go. Shoo.” Alexei waved him away, speaking in quick Russian to try and scare the other. The man would not be moved. “Go away, I have an alpha and he’s a lot better at taking a hint than you!”

Luckily Murray heard him speaking and came back quickly. “Alyosha...” He glared at the stranger and started talking to him in English, the other man looking more and more sheepish as Murray advanced on him. Soon the stranger retreated and Murray looked over at Alexei, stepping in close. “Are you okay?” He asked softly, looking him over as if the man had assaulted him or something. 

“Yeah I’m fine.” Alexei nodded. “He came over and started talking to me and I told him that I don’t speak English but he still persisted? I’m glad you came when you did because he wasn’t getting the point.”

“Some people are like that, I’m sure you’re aware. I’m glad I heard you when I did,” Murray said cupping his cheek for a second and looking at him softly. 

“I wasn’t worried, I knew my alpha would come and rescue me.” Alexei winked at him and Murray smiled. “Is this what you chose?” He asked looking down at the soft looking comforter set. 

“Yeah, and these sheets.” He lifted up a packet of fancy sheets in midnight blue. “And if they stain, we’ll just get some more.” Murray grinned. 

Alexei nodded. “I like that idea. That way we never have to decide on one color.” He grinned. “Can we be done for now? I know we don’t have a lot of the furniture and curtains and lamps but after all that I need a break, da?”

“Of course, sweet boy.” Murray gave him a soft smile. 

“And don’t think I wasn’t gonna give him what was coming to him if he went any further.” Alexei looked over at him as Murray started to lead him and the cart to the check out. “I’m just saying-”

“I know what you’re saying, you’re a strong omega who doesn’t need an alpha. I get it.” Murray smiled back at him. 

“But I was still glad that you were there,” Alexei said softer. 

“I’ll always try and be there for you.” He nodded. “It won’t happen after I’ve claimed you.”

“When?” Alexei asked him. “You could have done it already you know. I want you to.”

Murray sighed and walked to the back of the cart to speak softly to him. “I know that, darling. And I want to. I just...it’ll kick start your heat and you said you were on blockers for a long time, I thought it would be better to...take it slow. And it gives you some time to think it over. You know, I have friends in Canada and-”

“Murray Bauman, you’re an idiot.” Alexei shook his head and started to push the cart again. 

“What, for giving you a choice?” Murray walked along with him. 

“No, for not _listening_ to me when I tell you that I want you. I don’t have to think it over. I _know_.” Alexei shook his head, stopping to turn to him again. “You’re just trying to be a gentleman, and I appreciate it, but you’re not listening to me. You trust me to make my own choices?”

“Yeah but-”

“And I choose you. The end. That’s it.” 

“I guess I still don’t get why you would choose _me_. I know me, I wouldn’t choose me.” Murray shook his head. 

Alexei sighed and reached out to take the sides of Murray’s head in his hands. “You are infuriating and you definitely have a problem with your self worth but we _that_ can work on that.” He smiled and kissed him softly. “I would choose you anytime, anywhere.”

“I’ll try to believe it,” Murray said once Alexei let go of his face. “I guess I have the rest of our lives to work on it.”

“Exactly,” Alexei started pushing the cart again. “You’re not perfect, but I can help you.” Murray rolled his eyes from behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had one of my friends help me with Murray's middle name and she informs me that it's very very Jewish.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A treat for Halloween!

They split carrying the bags back to the food court. “We can get pizza for dinner, so let’s eat something small now,” Murray said as they grabbed a table. “Ever had tacos before?” Alexei shook his head and Murray grinned. “You’re in for another treat, I’ll be right back.” 

Murray came back about three minutes later with a tray, balancing two drinks and their food. “If you want to try anything other than coke, just let me know.” Murray said down and placed their drinks on the table. There were 6 tacos, two burritos, and a little package of cinnamon twists. He split the food up between them, swatting at Alexei’s hand as he tried to go for the cinnamon twists. “That’s desert.”

Alexei smiled at him and let Murray unwrap his tacos and burrito. “So this is a taco, it’s Mexican food, although I bet you get get better the further south you go. Hard shell, taco meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato. Easy. The burrito is basically the same except for the way it’s packaged.” He pulled some packets of sauce out from beneath some napkins. “This is taco sauce, mild is good, or you can do hot.”

Alexei looked at the tacos, trying to figure out how to hold them and bring them to his mouth without everything spilling out the top. “How do you...eat it.”

“You have a doctorate, you figure it out.” Murray smiled at him and started on his burrito, eager to see what Alexei came up with. Alexei gave him a look but accepted the challenge. He picked up the taco, studying it for a moment before turning his head and taking a bite. “See, I knew you’d figure it out.” Murray winked at him. 

Alexei chewed thoughtfully. It was certainly different but not bad. The lettuce and the tomatoes on top counteracted the heaviness of the meat and cheese. It was still messy despite Alexei’s trying to contain it. He looked at the shape of the taco shell, some improvements could be made on it, maybe making it more like a pocket so that the filling didn’t slide out the back. The burrito looked less messy, although he did like the crunch of the taco shell, something about it was satisfying.

He finished the taco in a few bites and noticed that Murray was watching him closely. “It’s good.” Alexei nodded and started to scoop up the filling that managed to fall onto the wrapper. He wiped his hands on a napkin and took a sip of his soda. “I wouldn’t mind trying different american drinks.”

“We can definitely experiment.” Murray smiled at him, wiping his mouth with a napkin. “Try the burrito next, sweetheart.” He squeezed some sauce into his own burrito and took another bite. 

Alexei grabbed the burrito to unwrap it. It looked more structurally sound than the taco, although he could see how it could easily be unwrapped from its tortilla. He hesitantly took a bite, it was the same filling as the taco but of course less messy. Oh, maybe not the same, it looked like there was some sort of beans in there as well, it definitely added to the flavor. “Is good. Needs sour cream though.”

“Ah, I think the burrito supreme has sour cream in it.” Murray nodded and pushed over a packet of mild and hot sauce to him. “Try it with one of these.” Alexei eyed the two small packs of sauce up while he chewed. “Try the mild first, the hot one is what it says on the package.”

Alexei narrowed his eyes and snatched up the hot sauce, opening the pack and pouring it onto the fillings of the burrito from the top. 

“Oh the tenacity of man will be its downfall,” Murray said as he watched Alexei take a bite. Alexei made a face. It was burning his tongue. “I told you to try the mild one first.” Alexei grabbed the soda to wash the bite down. The carbonation was just making the burning worse. “Eat some cheese from the taco,” Murray suggested

“Why did you hurt me like this?” Alexei muttered, unwrapping his next taco and eating the shredded cheese from the top. It kinda helped. “You got that on purpose because-”

“Because I knew you’d see it as a challenge and you’d try it first, me? No...” Murray gave him a knowing smile. “Why would I do that to my omega?”

“Very evil.” Alexei shook his head and took another sip of soda. “I’ll get you back, you know.”

“I know, that’s what keeps relationships fun. Using the knowledge of each other to torment one another. Never know what’s coming up next.” Murray smiled at him and continued to eat his burrito. 

Alexei shook his head again and started eating the taco he unwrapped, the burning down to a sizzle on the inside of his tongue now. What he could use right now was a nice refreshing cherry slurpee. Maybe he could bully Murray into getting him one later. 

“So I was thinking,” Murray started as he finished up his burrito, crumpling the wrapper and washing down his last bite. “Do you want to get a hotel room and stay here tonight?” Alexei looked up at him. “We can do more shopping tomorrow, and it’d be nice to show you around places that aren’t the mall.” Murray shrugged. “What do you think?”

“Yeah!” Alexei smiled widely at him. He was happy that Murray wanted to show him some of Chicago. “It could also be like uh... a honeymoon of sorts.” He took a bite of the taco, the shell basically crumbling in his hand. He made a face and started to scoop up the fillings with the pieces of shell. 

“Does that mean you want to get a  _ nice _ hotel room?” Murray asked, raising his eyebrow at him. 

“Nice but...affordable.” Alexei shrugged. “It doesn’t have to be fancy or anything just not...dilapidated.”

“I don’t know that word.” 

“Gross, worn, uh...falling apart,” Alexei finished the taco and wiped his hands again. 

“So a motel,” Murray said, eyeing the burrito, “You gonna want that after you poured the whole sauce packet on it?” Alexei gave him a look and pushed the other burrito towards him, Murray smiled. “Hotels are nicer than motels. For the record, I wasn’t going to make us stay in a motel. Although we do need to make sure that we save and not spend frivolously.”

“You don’t know the word dilapidated in Russian but you know  _ frivolously? _ ” Alexei asked as he unwrapped another taco. This time he opened the mild sauce and tested it on his wrapper before squirting it on his taco, it was much better than the hot sauce. 

“My mother taught me, don’t judge.” Murray shook his head and took a big bite of the burrito. 

“Your mother knows Russian! Good!” Alexei smiled at that. 

“Well, not if you know the  _ reason _ she knows Russin. I’m not sure how she’s gonna react knowing that  _ you’re _ Russian.” Alexei frowned at that. “She was a young girl when world war two happened and well we’re Jewish.”

“Oh.” Alexei said softly. “Maybe I’ll try and learn English before she comes then.”

“Up to you, you definitely can’t help being Russian.” Murray quirked an eyebrow at him. “Just maybe not be  _ so _ proud of it when,  _ if  _ she comes to visit.”

“ _ If _ ,” Alexei scoffed. “You know we’re going to invite her for Chanukah.” He smiled at Murray before taking a bite of the taco. “I hope she likes me,” he then said softly. 

“She’s gonna love you, baby, don’t even worry about that,” Murray told him quietly. “Also, if you invite her in, she’ll never leave. Not even if we have sex in the living room. She would ask if we wanted snacks.”

“Well...we might want snacks.” Alexei grinned at him. “I just wanna see baby pictures of you-”

“Don’t worry, she’ll bring the album and it’ll be horrible.” Murray shook his head. “You’re lucky I can’t do anything like that to you.”

Alexei shrugged. “Well...I would want to have my momma over if I could,” he said softly. “Anyway, are we gonna shop more after we’re done?”

“Yeah, there’s some fun stores we can go into,” Murray smiled and nodded. “We can go into the Gap.”

“Sounds scary.” Alexei unwrapped another taco. 

“It’s where young people shop.” Murray nodded. “Very scary.”

“And what do you expect to find in there?” Alexei asked, sipping his coke. 

“I don’t know, something fun.” Murray shrugged and grabbed a cinnamon twist, crunching down on it. 

The front of the Gap was just as colorful as the inside appeared to be. “There are so many colors, I’m frightened,” Alexei said, crowding in close to Murray as they entered the store.

There was a clear divide between women and men sections and the woman’s section seemed a big more crowded. The two walked over to the men’s section to see what they could find that would provoke a reaction from the other. 

Alexei held up a highlighter yellow reflective fanny pack. Murray smiled. “I’d wear that.” Alexei made a face and quickly put it back on the rack, he definitely didn’t want to be seen out with Murray wearing that.

Murray grabbed a Chicago Bears hat with a grin and showed it to Alexei. Alexei approved with a grin, not knowing the sports team at all but knowing what Murray was referring to. Alexei knew that he might have to hijack that hat from Murray sometime. 

Since the Gap was already putting out things for winter, even though it was still July, Alexei grabbed some nice soft pajama bottoms in various colors. While he was picking out the different colors, something else caught his eye. Tiny electric blue shorts. He could only imagine Murray’s response to those, especially seeing Alexei  _ in  _ them. He grabbed his size off of the rack as well as a gray tank top that he would probably need since it was so hot and humid in Hawkins.

Alexei found Murray and grabbed his hand to drag him to the fitting rooms. Murray was confused but went along with it. The fitting rooms were at the back of the store, the only way Alexei found them was searching for something that was similar to the last store they’d been in. Murray stood outside the room, which had an actual door instead of just a curtain this time, and waited for Alexei to show him whatever he was going to show him. 

When Alexei cracked the door open for Murray to see him in the short shorts and slouchy tank top, Murray pushed his way into the room and closed the door. “This is...” Murray looked at him up and down slowly. The shorts didn’t leave much to imagination. “Turn around...slowly.” Alexei rolled his eyes but did what he was asked. “We are so getting those.”

Murray pressed Alexei up to the wall of the fitting room once he turned back to face him again. “You look amazing.” He pressed a deep kiss to the other’s lips and Alexei relaxed in his hold. 

“Its pretty comfortable.” Alexei smiled at him. Murray’s hands went down and trailed up the backs of Alexei’s thighs and up the short shorts, making the other shiver a little. “I guess you like it too.”

Murray cupped his hands against the bottom of Alexei’s ass cheeks and pressed him to the wall to kiss him again. Alexei wrapped his arms around the other’s shoulders and kissed him back softly. After what had happened earlier, it was nice to be close like that, it was reassuring.

Alexei let out a soft noise as they kissed, neither one wanted to break away from the other. But they  _ needed _ to because if they kept that up then they would  _ have _ to buy those shorts. Alexei pulled away, shaking his head. “We need to stop...” But he was magnetically drawn back to Murray’s lips. 

“We should...” Murray agreed and went back to kissing him. Alexei shook his head again and pressed his hands to Murray’s shoulders, pushing him away. “You’re right...we need to stop.” He looked away and took a deep breath. “I’ve never felt the way you make me feel, Alyosha.”

Alexei looked at him for a second, trying to piece out the words that Murray just said, his mind still jumbled from kissing. “Oh, yeah, me too.”

Murray rolled his eyes. “Get those shorts...maybe a couple pairs,” he said, giving Alexei one last glance over before sliding out of the fitting room. 

They bought two more pairs in different colors of the shorts. 


	15. Chapter 15

After making a quick trip to the van to store their purchases, they walked back into the mall, stopping in front of a mall directory. “Your choice,” Murray said. “I know you can’t read English but... **_Eeny meeny miney moe_ ** **.** ”

“ **_Eeny meeny miney moe?_ ** ” Alexei gave Murray a look. “Have you finally gone insane?”

“No it’s a...just pick something.” Murray shook his head and gestured to the board. Alexei looked at the choices and pointed to one that looked like it had a doggy picture by it. “We’re not going to a pet store, pick again.”

“You said it was my choice.” Alexei gave Murray a look.

“Yeah and that wasn’t one of the options. Pick again,” Murray said and nodded to the board. Next, Alexei pointed to a toy store. “You’re a child. Come on.” Alexei grinned and followed Murray to an escalator, where they stood side by side as it lifted them up to the second floor of the mall. 

Alexei’s eyes lit up when they approached KB Toys. “You can get one thing. One,” Murray told him as they entered.

“One.” Alexei nodded, abandoning Murray to the wraith of the children running around him to go search down the aisles. He came back a moment later to show Murray his find. 

“Oh...that is...a Speak and Spell.” Murray nodded. “That is actually useful, I’m sorry I doubted you.” A speak and spell was a toy for toddlers to help them with spelling and words, definitely helpful for an ex-soviet trying to learn English. They walked out, Alexei with a smug look on his face while swinging the KB toys bag. 

“Be truthful,” Murray started, “That’s not what you went in there to get, was it?”

“No.” Alexei smiled over at him. “We should find another home goods store, yeah?”

“Yeah, I think we’ve exhausted those in the mall, we’ll have to drive around. Anywhere else you wanna go before we leave? And you’re looking at the puppies-”

Alexei was already looking into the large window at the puppies playing around in their cage. “Look, that one’s grumpy like you!” He pointed at the small curly, black puppy sitting by itself away from the others. 

“We’re not getting a dog,” Murray said, taking Alexei’s arm and leading him away. “You’re a handful enough as it is.”

“Me?” Alexei asked as he was pulled away. “Why me? What did I do?”

“Everything,” Murray said, shooting back a smile at him as he pulled him along. 

“Everything!” Alexei shook his head. “I didn’t know I was such a burden on you...” They both knew the other was joking of course, there was no where they would rather be. Except maybe alone together.

“You’re absolutely horrible, let’s go in here.” Murray pulled him into a bookshop. 

“I wonder if they have any Russian books here,” Alexei asked as he followed Murray in. “Or a dictionary I could use, that would be helpful.”

“It’s worth it to check but I doubt they’ll have anything, maybe the dictionary.” Murray looked around at the signs and started off in the direction of the reference books. He scanned the titles as Alexei stood back. “What do you know?” Murray grabbed an English to Russian dictionary off the shelf. “English to Russian dictionary. You’ll need that. But I don’t think they’ll have any Russian books for you,” he said as Alexei wandered along the shelves, trying to find anything in cyrillic. 

“Oh, here...Lolita...” Alexei made a face. “Doyvereski...Tolstoy. Boring.” 

“What did you expect? An American store in the midwest to have hot new Russian fiction?” Murray raised his eyebrow, he could have told Alexei what he was going to find. “The dictionary is a good find though, then you can start to read some English books.”

“But what about Pushkin, or Chekhov?” Alexei said as Murray started leading him away again. 

“I didn’t know you were such a big reader.”

“The only thing we could do was read and play darts, I told you,” Alexei said as he followed Murray to the check out line. 

“Well you’ll have more than enough to read once you learn English, don’t worry about that. I’ll take you to the library once we have time and you can get a library card.” He nodded at Alexei. “I think you’ll be speaking English in no time, darling.”

Alexei didn’t know what he thought about that, of course it would be easier for him to maneuver through life in America and he would be able to talk with more people than just Murray. But some stubborn Russian part of him made him never want to learn English, because Russian was inherently better. 

“Don’t give me that look,” Murray looked over at him. “You need to learn English. I’m not gonna be there to hold your hand in every encounter. You’re gonna need to go to the store, the library, stuff like that, all by yourself.” 

“I know I have to, but I don’t wanna.” Alexei made a face. “Why can’t I just speak Russian to people and expect them to understand it like they speak English to me?”

“Because we’re better than other people, remember that.” They finally got to the front of the line and Murray paid for the dictionary. They put the book in the same bag as the Speak and Spell. 

“Should we go to a furniture store now? Or are you tired of that today?” Murray asked as they started to walk out of the mall again. 

“No, let’s go today. We still need to get a bed delivered to the house if we want to sleep there anytime soon.” Alexei nodded and got into the passenger’s side, stretching out a little. “And to get some wallpaper or paint for the walls….”

“One thing at a time,” Murray shook his head and started up the van. “We need a bed first because I don’t wanna keep driving to and from my place to  _ our _ place.” 

“What are we gonna do with the spare bedroom?” Alexei asked, looking over at him. He had some idea of course, even though it seemed way too soon to think about stuff like that. 

“Leave it for now. Let’s get the rest of the house in order before we think about stuff we aren’t using.” Murray glanced over at him. They pulled into what looked like a large furniture store and parked a short walk away from the entrance. “So I was thinking that we schedule delivery in two days? So I can show you around tomorrow?”

Alexei nodded as they walked into the store. It was a bit overwhelming, there was furniture everywhere, making the huge store seem claustrophobic. The beds were in the center by the sofas. “You want a soft bed right?” Murray asked them as they walked over to where the beds were. “Like the bed I have?”

“Yeah, but I can really sleep on anything. Soft is nice though,” Alexei said softly. 

Murray got the attention of a sales person and started chatting in English to him. Alexei sat on the bed closest to him and tested it. Too hard, it hardly had any give to it. The salesman smiled at Alexei and nodded. Alexei figured that Murray was telling him something about him being an omega and wanting a soft bed. Whatever. 

The salesman lead them over to a canopied bed, which Alexei knew that omegas were supposed to like while they were nesting, it was supposed to make them feel safe. Murray turned to Alexei to get his opinion and Alexei just shook his head. If your alpha didn’t make you feel safe while in heat, then a bed surely wouldn’t. 

It was clear that the salesman usually sold that sort of bed to alpha/omega couples, and the fact that Alexei made it clear that he didn’t want it made the salesman stumble a bit. Alexei moved closer to Murray to explain what he was thinking. “Something plain, maybe a modern headboard and footboard? Nothing too much...” Murray nodded and relayed that to the salesman. 

They were led over to less grandiose bedroom sets. Alexei gravitated over to a dark cherry stained wood set, he looked over at Murray. It was more of a dark wood with a red undertone. Murray nodded and pointed to the set, telling the salesman. Alexei sat on the bed while they discussed things in English. Once he learned English, he could listen in, but for now he just laid back across the actually really comfortable bed. He sat up again. “Murray.” He patted the bed beside him. 

Murray stopped talking to the salesperson and walked over to sit on the bed beside him. Alexei was smug that Murray paid that much attention to him to drop the conversation with someone else to go to him. “This one is nice,” Murray bounced a little on the bed. He turned and said something to the salesman who nodded. “He’s going to save the pieces for us until we’re done shopping,” Murray told him. “I can’t believe he suggested a canopy bed.”

“I think a lot of omegas like them,” Alexei shrugged. “I just think I want a lot of soft blankets and pillows. I don’t know...”

“You’ve never nested before.” Murray looked over at him. “We can learn together.” 

Alexei smiled at that, pushing himself up and off the bed. “You’re amazing,” he said, offering Murray his hand. 

“You’re going to make my ego even bigger than it was before,” Murray grinned and took the offered hand to pull himself up. 

“Is that possible?” Alexei asked with a smile. 

“Shut up and let’s go look at lamps.” Murray shook his head and started off towards the brighter corner of the store. “We need bedside lamps as well as some for the living room,” Murray mentioned as the looked around, still holding hands. 

“Elephants?” Alexei pointed to two lamps with elephant rearing up on their hind leg with their trunks in the air as bases. 

“Absolutely not,” Murray said the second he saw them. “Something nice and simple, so they go with everything.”

“So not ones that look like spaceships?” Alexei asked him pointing to two that had a sci-fi vibe to them.

“Negative,” Murray said as he looked around at the styles of lamps. 

“You’re no fun.” Alexei made a face, but still held onto Murray’s hand as they walked. “I bet you want something like that.” Alexei pointed to two very plain matte black lamp bases with an off white shade. 

“Yes that’s perfect, good job sweetheart.” Murray pulled him over to where the lamps were. 

“Can we at least get the red ones?” Alexei asked. “They’d bring the red of the wood out.” 

Murray sighed and looked at the red ones, they were identical to the black ones only red. “Fine.” He let go of Alexei’s hand to grab the red lamps, handing one over to him to hold. “Probably should find that salesguy...” Murray muttered. 

“Why is that one a banana?” Alexei asked, nodding to the lamp with the pop art banana base.   
“Andy Warhol,” Murray said off hand, “Artist in the 60s. He did bananas...the campbell soup cans.” He shrugged. “It’s weird 60’s stuff, I don’t know how he got popular, anyone can draw a banana.”

“Then why didn’t you?” Alexei asked him with a tilt of his head. 

“Because I was doing more important things.” Murray told him, holding his head up and clutching the lap to his chest. 

“Like not getting famous drawing a simple banana.” 

“Like learning Russian to eventually save your ass,” Murray gave him a look. “Yeah that’s what I thought. Besides, it was the 60’s I was only like...10 or something. Barely even a human being.”

“Barely.” Alexei smiled at him. “I guess I should thank you for learning Russian to eventually save my ass instead of getting rich by drawing bananas.” 

“Saved your banana,” Murray muttered as he turned to look at lamps for the living room.

Alexei smiled and kissed Murray’s cheek. “Thank you for saving my banana.”

“I assure you it was for purely selfish reasons,” Murray told him as they walked over to some white ceramic looking lamps for the living room. 

“So you didn’t want to be the big hero and save the world from evil goo monsters?” Alexei asked him as he grabbed one of the lamps and Murray grabbed the other. 

“I meant the other time, the reason we’re here holding lamps.” Murray lifted up the two lamps in his arms a little for emphasis. “I would have been just fine in my little bunker, and then you and your cute smile and curly hair came along.” Alexei grinned as Murray led them up to the front to put down the lamps. 

“I didn’t realize I made such an impression on you,” Alexei said as he sat the two lamps he was holding down on the counter like Murray did. 

“You think I’d be here if you didn’t make an impression?” Murray asked him softly before going to find the salesman from before. Alexei was glad that he made an impression on Murray, he didn’t know where he would have ended up if he didn’t. This might have been the best possible outcome. 

As Murray was coming back, Alexei yawned and stretched. It had been a longer day than he realized, and they weren’t quite done yet. “We should get this done today so it can be delivered. What else do we need? Living room stuff and a kitchen table?”

“Yeah.” Murray nodded. “We just need to decide on something quick and then we can go get pizza.” 

Alexei sighed, “Yeah but I don’t want to just settle on something, since we’re the ones going to be looking at it for...ever.”

“Forever?” Murray gave him a look. “Come on, we’re making the salesman uncomfortable with all this Russian talk.” Alexei gave the salesman a look as they started walking to the couches. 

“Red,” Alexei said, heading for the red corduroy looking sofa and sitting down on it. 

Murray sighed and looked at the couch before sitting down. “You realize this isn’t going to match the walls very well.”

“We’ll paint the walls. I like red.” Alexei said, taking a throw pillow and tossing it into the air and catching it.

“I know you like red,” Murray said to him before turning and talking to the salesman. Alexei stood up and tossed the pillow back on the couch, heading over to the recliners. 

“We could do this cream color for your chair.” Alexei moved around a chair and glanced up at Murray. 

“I have  _ a chair _ now?” Murray asked, amused, getting up and following him as the salesman took stock of what number the sofa was. 

“Don’t you want a chair?” Alexei asked, watching him as we approached. “We should get a love seat in that color too...or no?”

“Why don’t we just get it all in red and paint the walls this color?” Murray asked him, plucking at the top of the chair. Alexei smiled and Murray let out a sigh. “I thought so. We’re never going to convince anyone you’re not Russian at this rate.”

“I like red...” Alexei gave him a look, pouting slightly, “Doesn’t have anything to do with Russia,” he told him as Murray walked back over to the salesman to tell him their plan. Alexei thought of everything else they needed for the house and was not looking forward to doing it today. He just wanted to get a living room set, and a kitchen table and they could figure the rest out later. 

Once Murray was done talking to the salesman, they walked the little ways over to the living room sets. “I think a light color wood?” Alexei asked as they walked around. They would definitely need a entertainment center but nothing too grandiose or obnoxious. 

Murray motioned for Alexei to go over to where he was standing. “This one is nice, what do you think? I could put my record player on top?”

Alexei nodded and squatted down to look at the compartments. There was a shelf to the side as well as a storage cupboard at the bottom of where the tv would sit. Otherwise it was nice. He stood back up and nodded, “We should get the rest to match this color too.”

“I think there are side tables and a coffee table with this set, I’ll go check with the sales guy.” Murray nodded and went to go talk to the salesman again, who was staying far back from where they were. It was strange but maybe he just wanted to give them some space. 

Alexei had already picked out a kitchen table and chair set and was sitting at it when Murray walked back over. “I think the salesman thinks we’re part of the mob.” 

Alexei gave him a look. “Why does he think that? Because I’m Russian? Rude.” Murray shrugged. “I wonder what he’s going to think when you pay for all of this in cash?”

Murray gave him a slow grin at that. 

“So what are you thinking? I’m the son of a mob boss and you’re here to make sure my relocation to America runs smoothly?” Alexei smiled, they could have a big of fun with this if they wanted.

“Why do I have to be the lackey? Because I speak English?” Murray made a face. “How about we ran away together to start a new life because our love wasn’t accepted by your family and now we need to keep a low profile but still get things for our new home?”

Alexei tilted his head to look at him. “It seems like I’m describing a spy thriller and you’re describing a romance.” That was an interesting thing to discover about the other man. 

“Why can’t it be both?” Murray asked him. “There are two sides to every story, maybe my side is a romance and your side is a spy thriller. I don’t know  _ why _ you’d want that kind of chaos in your life, but if I’ve figured out anything about you from the time we’ve been together it’s that you’re an agent of chaos.”

Alexei nodded. He’d take that title. He saw the salesman inch closer out of the corner of his eye and he motioned to Murray. “I think we’re done, at least for the day? Yeah?”

“Yeah I’m...ready for pizza.” Murray nodded and turned to the salesman to tell him of their final selection. 

They all moved back up to the front so Murray could pay and set up delivery dates. The look on the salesman’s face when Murray pulled out the envelope of cash --from his pants no less-- was hilarious, like a wide eyed alarming look that he tried not to show in front of the customers. Alexei was sure that he would talk about them for a while after they left.

Alexei was actually surprised that Murray had enough money to pay for everything in full. They walked out with the lamps and a slip signifying the delivery would be in two days from then. “Did you see the look on his face?” Alexei grinned as they walked to the van. 

“I wish I had a photo of it.” Murray smiled and carefully unlocked the van to put the lamps into the back. “I think we need to stop by the bank again before they close, the furniture depleted our funds for the day. But we did get a good deal for buying so much at once.” They got in and he started the car. 

“Well we did furnish an entire house.” Alexei nodded. “I’m surprised you took out enough money.”

“We didn’t spend as much as I thought on clothes and things, besides, I think the guy was scared of us.” Murray grinned at him as they pulled out of the parking lot. “I guess being part of the fictitious Russian mafia has its perks.”

“Or maybe he saw that we were a new couple and wanted to give us a honeymoon discount for our new house?” Alexei smiled over at him. “It depends on if you want to go romance or spy thriller.”

“Very true...maybe in a way, its the same story?” Murray glanced over. “James Bond always gets the girl at the end.”

“You’re not James Bond and I’m not a girl.” Alexei looked out the window and smiled. 

“I said  _ in a way _ . Spoil sport.” 


	16. Chapter 16

Alexei stayed in the car to mess with the Speak and Spell while Murray went back into the bank. Why Murray now trusted that Alexei wouldn’t get ‘stolen’, Alexei didn’t know. But he did know the words Tree and Cat, and with the help of the dictionary, he could match them to the words in Russian. This learning English thing was gonna be easy! 

As soon as Murray got back into the car, Alexei told him his new words, feeling a little bit like a toddler. “Wow look at you.” Murray grinned at him. “Next thing you’ll know you’ll be the next Hemingway.”

Alexei made a face and turned off the toy, stuffing it and the dictionary back into the bag. “I think we read him in school to show how stupid the West was.”

Murray started the van, “he’s not the most eloquent writer but he’s not awful, he inspired many other authors or something like that. I don’t know I didn’t pay much attention to his unit in High School.”

“Ooh, now you have to tell me what you were like as a teenager?” Alexei grinned at him. He was anxious to hear about what Murray was like back then, if what he was imagining was correct. 

Murray glanced over at him. “What do you  _ think _ I was like?” Alexei gave him a look, like ‘do you really want to know?’ “Fine. I was too good for everyone, dressed in all black, smoked out behind the building, and liked English the best.”

“Hmm...I see it.” Alexei nodded, just like he thought. “And I was-”

“A cute nerd.” Murray smiled over at him. “We would make out in the AV closet. You know, if we went to school together.” 

“And you’re sure of this?” Alexei asked, raising an eyebrow at him. 

“Most people don’t change much when they get out of high school,” Murray told him, “Am I wrong?”

“You’re not wrong. I also played football, but that was mostly because my brothers played it.” Alexei shrugged. 

“It’s called **_soccer_** over here,” Murray explained. “Were you any good?”

“I held my own. I was smaller than they were so I was faster. They’re a couple of years older than me, so it wasn’t too long until I didn’t have anyone to play with so I stopped.” Alexei shrugged again. “Maybe I’ll pick it back up or something. Did you play a sport?”

“Uh no, I was in band...trombone.” Of course Alexei burst into laughter at that. “What? I was good,” Murray grumbled. Alexei mimed a trombone slide and laughed again. 

“That’s cute, you were a band geek. You think I would associate with band geeks?” Alexei grinned over at him. 

“I wasn’t  _ just _ a band geek, alright. I was cool,” Murray said defensively. “Let’s just...not talk about it anymore. The bank told me of a nice hotel we can stay at for the night, it’s right around here.” The pulled the van into a nice looking hotel’s parking lot. They even had a valet. “This might be a little too fancy, but whatever it’s just one night. Honeymoon, right?”

Alexei smiled over at him and nodded. It was gonna be nice, staying somewhere fancy, at least for a night. Murray grumbled a bit as he pulled the van into the valet spot, it was obvious that it was an expensive hotel, just by the types of cars that were loitering around. 

“Get some clothes for tomorrow and whatever,” Murray told him, grabbing a bag with his clothes from the back before getting out of the car. Alexei watched for a second as he went over to the valet to talk with them before getting out of the car as well. He could just wear the same clothes as he did today, and as for pajamas, well…

Murray looked over at him as Alexei walked over. “You’re going to wear the clothes you have on, tomorrow?” Alexei nodded. The valet was already walking over to the van to drive it elsewhere to park. “And for...nevermind.” Murray shook his head and lead him into the fancy hotel. 

Some of the rich people inside were looking at them strangely as they walked across the shiny floor to the reception. Murray asked the receptionist something and she looked from him to Alexei and back to Murray before giving her answer. He asked another question, to which she sighed and answered. Murray grinned, looking over the too tall reception desk. The receptionist began to type a lot and quickly, with a bored expression on her face, like she would like to be anywhere but there. 

After some of time of her typing, she sighed and reached under the desk and retrieved a key, handing it and some paperwork to Murray. Murray asked her something again, in English and a look of relief flashed across her face and she nodded. He pulled out his wallet and paid for the night in full. Did she think they weren’t good for it or something?

The receptionist handed Murray a receipt with a smile and Murray motioned for Alexei to follow him to the elevators. Luckily they caught one alone, once the door closed Alexei asked, “What was that all about?”

“Well, first I had to make sure the honeymoon suite was available and how much it was.” Alexei grinned at that. “Then I had to make sure we could order pizza to the room, we can.” Alexei licked his lips. “And then I told her I was paying for the room in advance. I think she thought we were gonna spilt before paying or something.”

“You got us the honeymoon suite?” Alexei asked, tearing up a little at the thought. “You’re so sweet...”

“Yeah yeah, I know, it’s only for one night,” Murray said as he leaned into the hug. “Maybe we can steal their bathrobes.”

Alexei cackled as the elevator doors opened to their floor. He bounced out, grabbed a hold of Murray’s hand. “I thought you were tired, sweetheart?” Murray couldn’t help but smile at Alexei’s reaction. “Ah, stop bouncing this is the room.” He stopped in front of a cream colored door with fancy trimmings around the edges. Murray put the key into the door and the door swung open. 

There was a large window looking out over the city, all the light sparkling in the darkness. Alexei was automatically drawn to it. “Your city is so pretty at night, Moshy.”

“I hate how that’s gonna stick,” Murray muttered, turning on the lights to the room. The bed was almost as big as the room itself. It looked soft, the bedframe was, of course, a heart, since it was the honeymoon suite after all. There was a bouquet of roses next to a heart of chocolates on the table at the foot of the bed, as well as some champagne cooling in a tub of ice right next to it. Between the pillows was a plush bear with a small balloon with the word ‘congratulations!’ written on it in fine script. 

Alexei turned and took in the room with the light on. It was a little too much, if he was being honest, but fun for a night. There was a small chandelier which sparkled over the bed. He looked at Murray and grinned. “How much did all of this cost?”

“Not as much as you would expect,” Murray answered with a shrug. “The largest room was booked up already, this is only the  _ smaller _ room.” 

“Were you gonna get the largest room for us?” Alexei asked with a smile as he walked over to where Murray was. 

Murray shrugged again. “For one night, even if we don’t do anything, you’re worth it. And it’s fun.” 

Alexei wrapped his arms around him and kissed him softly. “You are...more than I expected you know?”

“What can I say? I’m a romantic at heart.” Murray grinned at him.

“Obviously.” Alexei looked over to the champagne in the bucket. “Are we gonna have champagne and pizza?”

“Why not? Let me order it now, I’m starving.” Murray removed himself from Alexei’s arms and walked to the phone by the bed. “One of the bad things about Taco Bell, you’re hungry an hour later.”

”I’m going to check out the bathroom,” Alexei said softly while Murray was ordering on the phone. The bathroom was nice too, a large tub which both of them could fit in, some good smelling bubble bath--Alexei was definitely going to take that with them when they left-- and some rose petals and candles to scatter around to be more romantic. 

They were both definitely tired but maybe they could make the evening memorable. Alexei grabbed the soft white hotel robes from the back of the bathroom door and brought them into the bedroom, putting them on the bed just as Murray got done with the order. He sat the phone down and looked at the robes with a smile. 

“There’s also a huge bath tub that I want to take advantage of.” Alexei told him. “Maybe after we eat, how long is it going to take for the pizza?” He asked, sitting down on the bed. It was actually very comfortable, despite thinking about how many couples ‘honeymooned’ on this very bed.

“But that look on your face, you’re thinking about how many couples fucked in this bed,” Murray said with an easy grin. “I’m sure they wash everything thoroughly. It’s a fancy hotel after all.”

“I’ll just be happy when we get to do stuff on our  _ own  _ bed.” Alexei sighed and fell back against the soft bed. 

“What kind of  _ stuff? _ ” Murray asked, knowing full well what kind of stuff Alexei meant.

Alexei turned his head to look at him. “I’m off my blockers, my heat will be coming sooner or later. Sooner whenever you decide to claim me.” He gave Murray a look at that. 

“I know, I know.” Murray moved around to lay beside him, particularly on the robes. “I want to, you know I do. But I also want to wait until we’re in our own house to do it.”

“So getting the honeymoon suite wasn’t a move to claim me tonight?” Alexei asked him softly. 

“No, I just wanted something nice for us to relax for the night in.” Murray shrugged. “Do you  _ want _ me to claim you tonight? I just figured if I’m claiming you then we’d do...other stuff too, and you might want to wait for us to be in the house. That’s just what I’m thinking.”

“I want to, but I see your point. It would be nice to do that in the house.” Alexei nodded. “Then we’ll just have fun tonight. The tub is big enough for two and there’s bubble bath.”

“Of course that’s your idea of fun.” Murray smiled. 

“Why? What’s your idea of fun? I doubt it’s any better,” Alexei challenged.

“A bubble bath with alcohol.” Murray grinned at him. “Bubbles with some bubbly.”

Alexei rolled his eyes and smiled, “That was horrible, even for you.”

“Even for me? What does that even mean?” Murray made a face and turned to look at him. “You act like I say things like that all the time.” Alexei gave made a face and looked away. “Oh, you’re gonna get it tonight, sweetheart.” By then there was a knock on the door and Murray stood up to get the pizza. 

Alexei sat up and watched him walk over to the door. It was faster than he expected but maybe the pizza place was close by. He stood up and kicked off his shoes, might as well be comfy, they weren’t going anywhere else for the night. He walked over and took the champagne out of the ice bucket. They probably would drink the whole bottle tonight, but Alexei doubted they would get seriously drunk. Vodka had twice the amount of alcohol in it of course. 

Murray came back with the pizza box and Alexei could already smell it. It smelled really good. He already had an idea of what pizza looked like but when Murray opened the box to show him, this pizza was a lot thicker than he pictured. “Chicago style deep dish. The only pizza that counts,” Murray said with a smile and sat the pizza box down on the bed. “Open the champagne and I’ll get you a good slice.” Luckily the pizza place gave them napkins and paper plates. 

Alexei popped the cork of the champagne and poured it into the awaiting glasses. It looked crisp and refreshing. He put the bottle back into the ice bucket and grabbed the two glasses, moving around the bed to hand one to Murray. Murray was already sitting back against the headboard, shoes off, pizza box in his lap. 

Alexei handed Murray his drink, and sat his own on the nightstand so it wouldn’t spill before sitting back against the headboard like Murray was. He took his glass again once he was situated and clicked it together with Murray’s, “cheers.”

“Mazel tov.” Murray smiled and they both took a sip. “Oh that’s the good stuff,” he said quietly before putting his champagne flute on the nightstand for safe keeping. “You want a big piece?” He asked, grabbing up the paper plates. 

“Da, please.” Alexei took another sip and watched him grab up a thick slice of cheesy pizza. He put his glass back down on the nightstand and took the plate from Murray, the pizza still steaming hot. 

“Careful, that cheese will give you third degree burns on the roof of your mouth,” Murray told him as he grabbed a slice for himself. Alexei wasn’t sure if he was joking or not. “Just blow on it a little.” He gave Murray a look as he closed the pizza box and put it down between them on the bed. 

Alexei carefully picked up the slice of pizza and blew on the corner of the square piece gently. He always saw pizza as a triangle slice? But apparently this was different. He carefully took a bite. As he chewed he nodded. It was really good, despite being strangely thick for a slice of pizza. 

“It’s good right?” Murray grinned at him, he was watching his reaction before he took a bite of his own.

Alexei swallowed. “Yeah, the crust is surprisingly crunchy despite all the toppings. I like it.” He took another bite, the pizza rapidly cooling the longer it sat on the plate. “I liked today, it was fun.”

“Yeah, I’ve never had so much fun while shopping before.” Murray nodded and glanced over at him, “I guess it depends on the company.”

“You know, I never expected you to be so sweet,” Alexei told him. 

“Only for you, Alyosha. You make me soft. I don’t know how you did it, but you managed it,” Murray told him softly before taking another big bite of his pizza so he didn’t have to elaborate. 

“I’m glad.” Alexei looked over at him. “Of all the places I ended up, I’m glad it was here with you.”

“This evening took a quick dive right into sappy territory.” He reached over to take a big sip from his glass. 

Alexei scoffed, “You’re the one who booked the honeymoon suite. You started it.” He took another bite of pizza, it was messy sure, but good.

“Well you don’t have to  _ continue it _ ,” Murray glanced over at him. “You have…” He handed Alexei a napkin. Alexei wiped his face, completely missing the spot of pizza sauce on his cheek. “Why are you so cute?” Murray wondered out loud as he reached over with another napkin and wiped off the spot. Alexei smiled at him.

“It’s off putting to people. They think I’m cute and dumb.” Alexei shrugged. “And then I surprise them.”

“Well I didn’t fall for that.” Murray told him. “I could see you were smart, I didn’t underestimate you at all. You were an enemy of the state, after all, I didn’t know what you had up your sleeve.”

“I think you kinda underestimated me. I saw the look on your face when I started talking about the lab.” Alexei gave him a slow smile. “It’s okay, you don’t have to lie.”

Murray sat back against the headboard, silent for a moment. “You know...I think I did. Not only because you were cute, but because I didn’t have that much faith in Soviet science.”

“Never underestimate a Russian,” Alexei spouted out words of advice, taking a sip of his champagne. The light bubbliness went surprisingly well with the tomato based sauce of the pizza. 

Murray rolled his eyes, “yeah yeah. Sure. I think you were just an outlier. The guards at the base were pretty dumb, they just let us go past them like we were there all along.”

“One guard,” Alexei shook his head. “That sample size isn’t valid. If you went through and no one was suspicious, maybe. But you told me the alarm was sounded soon afterwards.”

“Yeah because Hopper was trigger happy and we didn’t have time to hide the bodies.” Murray shook his head, remembering. “Not the way I would have went about it. He has some issues, obviously.”

“And he’s the sheriff, it’s slightly worrying,” Alexei said, continuing to eat his pizza. 

“Well, despite what he’s done recently, he’s still a good man, I feel,” Murray said softly. “A good man with some deep issues.” He took a bite of his own pizza at that thought.

Alexei took another sip of his drink. “What color are we thinking for the bedroom walls?”

“Maybe a blue? Although with the furniture we picked maybe something more neutral.” Murray made a face. “You and your red...”

“I like red.”

“So you’ve said. It doesn’t make picking a color for the walls very easy though,” Murray muttered. “How about off white?”

“I thought we were gonna do that in the living room?” Alexei wiped his fingers on the napkin. 

“It goes with everything. Who said we can’t have the same color walls throughout the house? Where is that a rule?” 

“I never knew you were so...passionate about wall colors, Moshy.” Alexei grinned at him and finished the crust of his pizza. 

“Please don’t ever call me that in public.” Murray looked over not amused. 

“No promises.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm attempting to do NaNoWriMo with this to get out some longer chapters for yall. Again, I love comments!


	17. Chapter 17

They ate two slices a piece and finished off their glasses before they pushed away the pizza for the night. “Too much,” Alexei groaned, putting his hand on his stomach. 

“Lightweight,” Murray teased as he grabbed the pizza box and stood to put it next to the tv on the counter. “I’ll go run us a bath.” He patted Alexei’s side and walked off as the other groaned. 

“Do you want bubble bath?” Murray called out a second later from the bathroom, the water running in the background.

“Da,” Alexei called back, his voice muffled in the pillow he was hiding his face in. He probably should have stuck to one piece, considering the size of the slices. 

“Bring the champagne when you come...” Murray called out again. Alexei groaned and pushed himself up. He grabbed both their glasses from the night stands and stood up, walking over to grab the champagne bottle as he passed it on the way to the bathroom.

There were the rose petals scattered on the floor and in the bubbles in the bathtub when Alexei walked in. He smiled softly at Murray. “Hopeless romantic.”

“No, hope _ ful _ romantic,” Murray smiled at him and pulled off his shirt. “Sit that stuff over by the wall, you see the little shelf?” Alexei nodded and leaned over the bubbles to put the glasses and bottle in the shelf on the corner of the large bath. When he turned back around Murray was completely naked, and Alexei definitely took the chance to get an eyeful. “What?” Murray asked, moving to get into the bath, hissing at the temperature. 

“I just wanted to look,” Alexei said before pulling his woody woodpecker shirt over his head and folding it up nicely on the counter. Murray was already pouring them another round of champagne into their glasses. Alexei turned away to wiggle out of his pants, knowing Murray was watching as he leaned over to pick them up. He turned to him and smiled. “What?”

“Come here, sweet boy,” Murray said softy and Alexei climbed into the warm bath, sitting in the V of Murray’s legs, his back to the other’s chest. He wiggled down a little so that he was more submerged in the bubbles and resting his head on Murray’s shoulder. 

“The bubbles smell nice,” Alexei said softly, reaching out and pressing his hand in a big piled of bubbles only to see it vanish underneath them. 

“Lavender. You know when we redo the bathroom, we should get a bath like this.” Murray reached over for their glasses of champagne and handed Alexei one. “I didn’t keep track of who’s glass was who’s but whatever.” He sipped the champagne with a sigh. 

“Does it really matter?” Alexei asked taking a large drink from the flute before sitting it back down by the bottle. He relaxed back against Murray with a sigh. “This is nice. I might fall asleep.” He turned his head to look at him. 

“Well I don’t know CPR so, don’t count on me saving you from drowning.” Murray smiled over at him and kissed his forehead. 

“So,  _ hopeful _ romantic, what are you hoping for?” Alexei reached under the blanket of bubbles and ran his fingers up Murray’s thigh slowly. 

“A nice relaxing bath,” Murray put his champagne glass down beside Alexei’s on the shelf. “And here you are trying to take that away from me by being sexy.”

“You think I’m sexy?” Alexei smiled, resting his head back against Murray’s shoulder and looking at him. 

“I feel like we’ve had this conversation before. The answer is the same as it was then.” Murray wrapped an arm around Alexei’s middle to hold him. 

“You gave me a non-answer then. I’m just trying to clarify.” He turned his head to kiss the skin below Murray’s ear. “Am I sexy to you?” He asked in a low tone close to Murray’s ear.

Murray closed his eyes and let out a long breath. “The things you do to me. I’m trying to be good, you know.” He opened an eye to look over at Alexei, who was smiling at him. 

“I know you want to wait until we get into the house and everything, and I do too,” Alexei said softly. “But I think there’s something to be said about taking me for the first time in a honeymoon suite.”

“Where so many others have led and so many others will follow.” Murray looked at him fully now. “I want it to be special, memorable.”

“It’s gonna be regardless of where we do it. Hell, we could do it in the back of the van and it’d be memorable because it would still be our first time together.” Alexei shook his head. “I’m getting impatient. I’ve never been this... _ needy _ for someone before.”

“It’s called  _ horny _ ,” Murray said slyly. “You’re horny because you’re hormones are adjusting themselves from all that time on blockers. It’s natural.”

“No! It’s not just that. I’ve never wanted anyone before like I’ve wanted you.” Alexei shook his head and sighed. “And I’ve been horny before, don’t make me into an innocent little omega, you’re better than that Murray.”

“I know, I know. It’s just that you’re so inexperienced with all this,” Murray said softly. “I don’t want it to be too much for you too fast.”

“Why don’t you let me decide that? You know, as an adult?” Alexei looked over at him. “I think I know what I want at this stage in my life.” Murray looked at him and nodded. “And what I want to do _ now _ , is curl up with you in that stupid bed, in those soft robes, eat all of those chocolates and watch Looney Tunes.” 

Murray laughed. “You are truly one of a kind, Alyosha. I wouldn’t trade you in for the world.” His other arm joined the one currently wrapped around Alexei’s middle and squeezed him into a tight hug. 

“Makes me wonder what you would have done if the government said no to all of this.” 

“Probably something stupid like smuggle you out and move to a cabin in Canada in the woods,” Murray said as though he had already thought about it. Alexei gave him a look. “What? It was my backup plan.”

Alexei smiled and shook his head, he settled back against Murray in the warm bath, the bubbles surrounding them. After a moment he started to giggle. “I’m just thinking about you outside in the snow cutting wood. I don’t think you have it in you, Moshy.”

“...You’re right, I’m not made for manual labor. Maybe Mexico would be a better idea, although neither one of us know Spanish.” Murray sighed and reached back over to grab his champagne again. 

“Luckily we didn’t have to do that.” Alexei nodded. “It’s going to be hard enough for me to learn English. Although I’m doing great so far, I think.” He grinned. 

“Especially if there’s a cat stuck in a tree,” Murray said slyly. Alexei scoffed at that and looked away and Murray kissed his head. “You’re doing great, baby, I know you are, I’m just being an asshole. That’s my default state.”

Alexei still didn’t look back at him, wondering what the other would do to gain back his attention. 

“Hey...” Murray said again. “Oh I see, you’re purposefully ignoring me.” Alexei heard him put his glass down again on the shelf. Suddenly Alexei felt Murray lean over and softly place a kiss on the scent gland on the side of his neck. He gasped and shivered slightly as it was a sensitive area. There was one on both sides of his neck, growing hot to the touch when an omega was in heat--thus the name-- and also the location for the mating bite. It was a sensitive patch of nerves just above the crook of his neck where his neck met his shoulder on either side. 

Murray kissed it again and Alexei moved his head to the side subconsciously so he could have more room. “Please...it feels good.” No one had ever touched him there before, not like that. 

“So you’re paying attention to me now.” He could feel Murray grin against him before running his tongue up the spot. Alexei shuddered again in his grasp. “I’m gonna give you beard burn on your shoulder if I keep this up,” Murray muttered but made no move to pull away.

“Don’t care.” Alexei reached up to put his hand on the back of Murray’s head, curling his fingers in his hair. “Please alpha.” He licked his lips. “You can mark me without biting me...”

“Tempting,” Murray said, and a small puff of air skimmed over the wet mark he made with his tongue. “I didn’t know it took you this little to get you worked up.” 

Alexei scoffed, “Shut up, I feel you getting hard against me too.” Of course that might have been because Alexei was wiggling against him a little. 

“You would be too if you had such a sweet boy in your lap.” Murray smiled and kissed his neck again softly. “You can’t imagine the stress I’m under,” he placed a lingering kiss there, making Alexei shudder against him again. “I have you right here, naked, wanting,  _ willing _ , but I told myself that I would wait.” Murray sucked lightly on where the gland was, pulling a moan out of Alexei. 

Alexei bit his bottom lip but couldn’t stop the sounds that leaked out of him, desperate, wanting sounds. All he wanted to do was have Murray bite down hard, marking him forever. He didn’t want to wait for something that was inevitable, it was just cruel. Alexei whined again and pressed back against Murray, feeling the other’s hard cock against his ass and the small of his back from how he was positioned. 

“You feel so good against me,” Murray continued, his lips still pressed lightly against his neck. “I can’t wait until I don’t have to hold back.” Alexei lolled his head back and closed his eyes, swallowing hard. “Although I  _ do _ love working you up like this...do you even know how gorgeous you are to me?” His other hand moved up Alexei’s torso slowly. 

Alexei let out a little noise as Murray ran a thumb across one of his nipples lazily. “I heard omega’s nipples are sensitive. Is that true?” Murray asked as he lightly scratched over the nipple with his thumbnail, making Alexei jolt in his arms from the sensation. Murray chuckled and gave a few more soft, quick kisses to his neck. “Guess so.”

“You’re mean.” Alexei arched his back a little bit, pressing his ass back against Murray by doing so. He could tease too. His other hand currently not tangled in Murray’s hair was inching towards his cock, lightly running his fingertips back and forth on the inside of his thigh. 

“Do you want me to stop?” Murray asked, taking his hand away from where it was toying with Alexei’s nipple. 

“Do and die,” Alexei growled out. Of course this made Murray chuckle as he moved his hand across Alexei’s chest to flick at his other nipple. 

He pinched Alexei’s nipple hard. “It’s not nice to wish death on your alpha, baby. Apologize and maybe I’ll give you what you want.”

Alexei gasped then let out a little groan. “Unbelievable...I’m sorry. Your mouth should be occupied...”

“So pushy.” Murray tutted before pressing an open mouth kiss to Alexei’s neck, lathing over the area with his tongue before starting to suck slightly. 

Alexei couldn’t help the high pitched noise that escaped his lips. He tried to dig his heels against the slippery bottom of the tub to press himself back against Murray even more, but ended up just moving his feet fruitlessly. 

Murray tutted again and moved Alexei’s hand away from where it was creeping towards his cock. “Let me take care of you, sweetheart,” he said softly into his ear and took ahold of his cock. 

Alexei let out a moan at the feeling of someone else’s hand on his cock. Up until then, no one had touched him that way. Murray was the only one who had access to him like this. “Fuck...” His hand came out of the water and gripped the edge of the tub, his other hand tightening a little in Murray’s hair. 

“As I was saying,” Murray said, giving Alexei’s neck a kiss up by his jaw. “You’re beautiful.” He started slowly stroking Alexei’s cock, running his thumb over the head from time to time to get Alexei to shiver with the sensation. 

“Please...” Alexei said breathlessly. More than getting off, Alexei wanted Murray to suck a mark on his neck. It wasn’t a bonding mark, but it was as close as they could get for the time being, if they wanted to hold off until they got settled into the house.

“I know, let me take care of you, sweet boy. I can give you what you need,” Murray said softly before pressing soft kisses against Alexei’s neck. He pressed his mouth over Alexei’s scent gland again and started sucking a spot there with long, slow sucks.

Alexei’s eyes fluttered closed again as he focused on the dual sensations. It felt like electricity flowing from his neck to his cock as Murray sucked and stroked in even rhythms. Alexei felt like he was going to fall apart from how slow the other was going. He let out a little sob as he bucked into Murray’s hand.

He was lucky that they were in the water, Alexei had a feeling he would be soaking through the bed if they were doing this there. They definitely had to remember to buy some waterproof sheets for his heat, they made them so they didn’t feel like you were on rubber or plastic, but soft and soothing to hot omega skin. 

“Faster,” Alexei moaned, he was so close, he just need for Murray to stop going painfully slow. Thankfully, that made Murray speed up the hand on his cock just a little bit. His other hand that was playing with his nipples came down and moved past Alexei’s cock and pressed a finger against his hole, just holding it firmly there. 

And that was all it took, Alexei gasped then cried out, jerking in Murray’s grasp as he came hard. His back arched as he rode out his orgasm, Murray stroking him through it until he drained the very last drop from him. 

Murray took his mouth from Alexei’s neck and licked at the hickey he made softly, making Alexei shudder in his arms as he relaxed. “Fucking beautiful,” Murray said softly and reached up to turn Alexei’s head for a kiss. 

“Mmm, alpha,” Alexei smiled against his lips before kissing him back with a sigh. Murray moved his hands back up, wrapping his arms around Alexei’s middle again as they kissed.

Alexei started pressing his ass back against Murray’s cock, grinding back against him. “Is that the way you want it to be?” Murray asked with a grin. 

“I want to feel you,” Alexei breathed out and grinded his ass back against him again. “Come on Alpha...”

Murray moved to adjust his cock so that he was sliding between Alexei’s ass cheeks, making the omega gasp. He grabbed Alexei’s hips and pulled him back and up so he was now truly sitting on his lap and not just between his legs. “Have I told you your ass is fantastic?” Murray asked as he started thrusting between Alexei’s cheeks. 

Alexei, of course, was doing his part, grinding back against him and putting on a show in his lap. “Yes, but tell me again.” He smiled and circled his hips slowly. 

Murray moaned softly, obviously not as loud as Alexei was but he had a chance to see what Murray liked and what made him moan the loudest later on. “Your ass is perfect. I just wanna bite it like a peach.” Murray continued to thrust up against Alexei, his dick sliding easily between the other’s cheeks. 

“You wanna eat me?” Alexei asked smugly. “I’ll definitely get beard burn then. How do you think I’ll taste?”

“I already know you taste amazing,” Murray said breathlessly, after teasing Alexei for so long and watching the other fall apart, it didn’t take long for his own build up. “God, I’d eat you out for hours...I  _ will. _ ” He thrust against him harder, groaning at the idea. “I’ll make you feel so good, you’ll never want out of bed.”

“That sounds nice.” Alexei smiled and turned his head so he could kiss Murray softly. “I’m looking forward to it.” 

Murray came with a gasp followed by a low groan, wrapping his arms around Alexei and pulling him close as he rode through his after shocks. 

“I can’t wait until you fuck me for real,” Alexei said softly and kissed his forehead. “And claim me….I want to be yours, I want everyone to see that I’m yours.”

Murray gave a little breathless laugh. “Well that hickey on the side of your neck will definitely alert some people.”

“I want our scents to combine. I want people to  _ know,  _ that you have an omega at home.” Alexei told him a little more firmly. 

“And who says you’re gonna stay at home all the time? People will see I have an omega because you’re gonna be standing right beside me.” Murray looked over at him with a small smile. “Equals.”

Alexei shook his head and smiled. “You’re so perfect for me.” He pulled Murray into a deep, passionate kiss. 

Once they pulled away, Murray said with a sly grin, “If I wasn’t a cynical bastard, I might actually believe we’re soulmates.” 

“You think so? True mates?” All the stories were from fairytales of course, but it was a nice thought. 

“It’s not gonna be easy, living with me, we’ll both have to work on this, the relationship-”

“All relationships require work. It’s gonna be hard for me to let go of the fact that I’m not quite the smartest person in the room anymore.” Alexei nodded and Murray scoffed. “What? I said not quite….”

“You are...” Murray gave a little laugh. “Amazing.”

“I know,” Alexei said kissing him softly. “Come on, let’s get out, the water is gonna be gross.”

They both got up and into the soft bathrobes provided by the hotel while the bathwater drained. They might have to both take a shower in the morning, but for now they slid into the bed, with the champagne and the box of chocolates, and turned on Looney Tunes. Murray petted at Alexei’s curls while he watched as Bugs Bunny got the upper hand time and time again. 


	18. Chapter 18

The next morning, they were curled around each other in the bed, the champagne bottle and chocolate box empty on the floor. Cartoons were still playing on the tv. Alexei woke up first, surprisingly, and cuddled into Murray’s side. He couldn’t believe he was here, any morning he was expecting to wake back up and still be under Starcourt in the bunks. Each morning he woke up surprised but happy. 

Alexei sighed and kissed Murray’s cheek softly before sliding out of bed to go relieve himself in the bathroom. He caught sight of the mark Murray had made on his neck the night before. It was definitely noticeable, not as much as a bonding bite would be but, Alexei smiled when he saw it all the same. 

He walked back into the room to find Murray still snoring away. He wished he had enough English under his belt to order them coffee or something but unfortunately he didn’t. Alexei sat on the edge of the bed closest to Murray and ran his hand up Murray’s furry chest. He really did have so much hair, Alexei loved it. 

“Moshy...” Alexei said softly, “Baby, wake up.” Murray woke with a deep breath in, blinking up at Alexei. “Morning.” Alexei smiled at him. “We should get up, I still want you to show me around the city.”

Murray let out a sigh and shook his head. “I’ll...order some coffee to be sent up, why don’t you take a shower first?”

“Okay.” Alexei leaned down and kissed him softly. 

As he pulled away Murray said, “No wait come back.” Alexei smiled and leaned back in for a longer kiss. “Okay, now go.”

“You know, I don’t think anyone would believe me if I told them how soft and loving you are,” Alexei said, standing up. “And I think you like it that way.”

“Absolutely,” Murray smiled up at him. “But, if it means anything, I’m only like this with you.”

“You better be.” Alexei gave him a look before going back into the bathroom to start up the shower. 

The best place to think is in the shower, Alexei thought as he let the hot water run over his body. They still had to get stuff today, they weren’t done shopping at all even though they had most of it covered, but he would still like to spend part of the day having Murray give him a tour around the place. He wanted to know more about the other man, his history. And maybe he could share some about his own past in Russia. 

Suddenly Murray’s voice was right next to the shower. “How does the shampoo smell?” Alexei jumped a little. “Sorry to scare you. I ordered coffee.” Then there was the sound of him peeing in the toilet. 

“I’m so glad we can be this...intimate with one another.” Alexei shook his head and lathered the shampoo into his hair. “The shampoo smells fine.”

“If you didn’t want me coming in, you would have closed the door,” Murray told him and flushed the toilet. Luckily with the hotel’s water system, it didn’t change the temperature of the water. “Is that okay?”

“Hm? Yeah, it’s fine,” Alexei told him with a shrug before he ducked back under the spray of the shower. “Doesn’t matter to me.” When he opened his eyes again Murray was peeking into the shower. “Hey!”

“Just lookin.” Murray grinned and ducked his head back out. “I’ll go get the coffee when it comes. Have you ever had a  _ continental breakfast? _ ”

“No? What is that?” Alexei asked as he started to put conditioner in his hair. 

“You’ll see. It’s like a breakfast feast,” Murray said before leaving the bathroom before Alexei could ask more questions.

Breakfast feast? Americans truly turned everything into a chance to eat. Alexei shook his head and rinsed off before shutting of the shower and getting out. Breakfast feast. 

Murray walked back in as Alexei was toweling off his hair. “Coffee’s out there. Why’d you turn off the shower?” He dropped his robe and turned on the shower, stepping in with a sigh. 

Alexei looked over at him with a smile. “Don’t forget, we’re taking the robes with us….the hotel won’t mind?”

“Nah, it happens all the time,” Murray said as he let the water run over him. “Do you wanna take the flowers too?” He asked. “They’ll probably die within a few days but they’re ours.”

“And it’ll be a pain in the ass to carry a literal bouquet of flowers around,” Alexei mentioned as he continued to dry off. “You can always get me flowers later.”

“ _ You _ flower? Why do I have to get  _ you _ flowers? Why don’t you get  _ me _ flowers?” Murray scoffed and squeezed some shampoo into his palm. He sniffed at the product before shrugging and starting to soap up his hair and beard. 

“Do you want flowers?” Alexei asked, his eyebrow raised slightly. “I can get you flowers. What kind, Moshy?”

“Tulips,” Murray answered. “Yes I have a favorite flower, no that doesn’t make me any less of an alpha.”

Alexei smiled. “Of course not. Maybe we can grow tulips at the house?”

“Hmm, I that we could do that...I can see myself as a gardener.” Murray smiled before making a face and spitting, “Shampoo in my mouth!” Alexei cackled as he left the bathroom to get dressed again. “Don’t laugh at my pain! I’ll remember your betrayal!”

When Murray got out of the shower, Alexei was sitting on the bed, sipping his coffee watching cartoons, per usual. Murray leaned over to kiss him softly. “We’re gonna have to get you some better shows to watch, darling.”

“Nothing wrong with cartoons. You don’t need to speak English to know what’s going on,” Alexei said and sipped his coffee again while Murray started getting dressed beside him. “Those are my track pants...” Alexei glanced over to see Murray putting on the green bottoms. 

“Yes they are. And they fit me too.” Murray told him and slipped on one of his own shirts that he had bought the previous day. Alexei shook his head. “What? We can share clothes, pants at least. Unfortunately your shirts are probably too small for me, but you can wear my shirts. What’s stopping you?”

“I didn’t say anything.” Alexei shook his head again. “Are ready to go?” He then asked.

“Let me get some coffee in me first, I can’t be seen in the general public without my coffee.” Murray sat down on the bed beside Alexei and grabbed his own cup of coffee, black and bitter. 

“I don’t know how you can drink it like that. Black coffee has to be a form of torture in places,” Alexei mentioned. 

“Well I don’t know how you can drink yours so sickly sweet. It’s not even coffee anymore. Besides, it’s just a vehicle for the caffeine to get in my system, the bitterness shocks me awake.” Murray shrugged and took another sip of coffee. 

“So what are you going to show me today?” Alexei asked, setting his own mug down. “Anything fun?”

“That, my dear, would be ruining the surprise.” Murray smiled into his mug. He took a sip with a sigh and sat the mug down on the nightstand. “Honestly there’s not much to see, I’ll show you a few things that are interesting but it’s nothing like New York or anything.”

“I want to see where you grew up...Can we visit your mom?” Alexei asked with a hopeful smile. 

“She lives in a little town not on our way, so no,” Murray told him and stood up, stretching slightly. “Sorry to burst your bubble.”

“You just don’t want her to show me all of your baby pictures.” Alexei scooted off of bed. “It’s okay, you can say it. You don’t want to be embarrassed by her.” He walked over to where Murray was standing and put his arms around his waist. “You want to seem  _ cool _ for me, not like the dork you really are.”

Murray gasped, “never.” He then smiled. “Let’s go get some breakfast,” he said and patted Alexei on the ass. 

“You are incorrigible.” Alexei rolled his eyes as Murray started off, grabbing the stuff they brought in with them. He also stuffed both of the robes in the bag as well. 

“Still don’t know what that means,” Murray said as they walked out the door. 

Alexei finally understood what Murray meant by ‘breakfast feast’ when they stepped in the room with the continental breakfast. The table was set up across the room with any possible breakfast thing you can imagine on it. Hot breakfast, cold breakfast, cereals. He followed Murray as he went to stand in the line, grabbing a tray and a plate from the stack and prompting Alexei to do the same.

Again Alexei found himself surrounded by choice, but frozen by indecision. Would he go for a standard breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, hashbrowns? Or something different? The cereals looked like they had a few fun colors that might be interesting to try. Or should he just try what he was in the mood for at the moment? He didn’t even know what that was…

Murray looked back at him. “Just get what you wanna get. It’s okay if you don’t eat it all, they’ll throw away the left overs anyway.”

“Why? That’s such a waste!” Alexei said quietly as he put some sausage and bacon on his plate, the both looked good, who said he had to pick between them? He was an American now, he could have what he wanted, right?

Murray had a pile of hashbrowns, a pile of scrambled eggs, and some sausage on the side. “That’s just America, we waste more than we consume,” he told him as they went down the line. “There are pancakes and they have some crepes too. They’re like blintzes without the filling? Of course they have everything to fill them yourself….” Alexei added a few crepes to his plate. 

“Then there are the rolls, croissants, cereals.” Murray continued down the line. “Yogurt, fruit, bagels, spreads… drinks. Get what you want,” he said before putting a croissant in his mouth and going to find them a table.

Alexei continued down the line to the cereals, grabbing what seemed to be a little carton of milk and a bowl and going to the most brightly colored one. He couldn’t understand what the label said but he poured the colorful loops regardless. He poured some orange juice, that was recognizable, and carried his tray to where Murray was. “I’m gonna go get some more coffee, you want any?” Murray asked and Alexei nodded. He could always use coffee. 

Alexei sat down and poured the milk on his cereal carefully. He didn’t know what it would taste like but it smelled nice and sweet. Murray came back a moment later with two mugs of coffee and a handful of creamers for Alexei, there was sugar already on the table. Alexei smiled up at him. 

“Ah, Fruit Loops.” Murray sat down and pointed to the cereal. “Pure sugar.”

“Smells good.” Alexei shrugged and took a bite. Crunchy and fruity. Also super sweet but good. “Are they supposed to be different tasting?”

“No. They’re supposed to taste like sugary death. You better eat fast, they’re worse when they get soggy.” Murray nodded to the bowl. “Cereal is always worse when it’s soggy.”

Alexei looked down at the colorful loops and frowned. Now it was a race against time. He hated rushing during meal time. It seemed like that was all what his meals were down at Starcourt, and even before then. Hurry and eat because you have work to do. He took a few more bites of the cereal before pushing the bowl away carefully. 

“See why I didn’t get cereal? You can learn something from me,” Murray told him as he mixed around the eggs, sausage he cut up, and hashbrowns on his plate. Alexei watched him as he mixed it around. “You get a bite of everything this way.”

“Looks like a mess.” Alexei shook his head and grabbed a plain crepe from his plate and took a bite. 

“You’re the one eating a plain crepe.” Murray shrugged and started eating. “I wouldn’t be judging.”

“You’re right, it could do with some filling. It’s a little soggy.” Alexei looked down at the folded crepe while he chewed. 

“Go get some jam or something.” Murray motioned over to the tables with food on them. “Or like some cream cheese or something.” Alexei looked over at the table, he didn’t really want to get back up again. “Oh my god, just go get something and stop looking forlornly at the food.”

Alexei gave him a look before sitting his half eaten crepe down and going to get some jam. Or what looked like jam to him, it was sort of hard to know for sure when he couldn’t read what the little packs said on them. Luckily there were pictures on some of the packs, and Alexei was pleased to find some cherry jam, which he grabbed in a handful and proceeded back to the table. He smeared the jam onto the crepe with a butterknife and took a bite. Cherry was his favorite after all.

“You really got a thing for cherries, huh?” Murray asked before taking another bite. 

“It’s good, you want some?” Alexei asked, starting on a second crepe and filling it properly with gooey jam.

“Looks like a murder scene,” Murray shook his head as Alexei licked his sticky fingers. “And you’re a Russian assassin going to blow up the stock market.” Alexei winked at him. 

“Why would someone do that?” Alexei shook his head and took a bite of the crepe with a smile. 

“To make the economy tank of course.” Murray shrugged and took a sip of his coffee. “I’m not an economist, don’t ask me, I don’t know how any of that works.”

“I just thought maybe someone had done that in the past,” Alexei told him. “I don’t know American history.”

“No, well I don’t think so. I was just saying something absurd.” Murray shrugged again, stabbing a piece of sausage on his plate.

“Well I guess it’s not the same as making a machine to open up a portal to another dimension.” Alexei took the last bite of his crepe and grabbed up a slice of bacon from his plate. 

“Shh, don’t say that too loud,” Murray whispered over to him, “People are always listening.”

“What? Who knows Russian here but us?” Alexei made a face. Sometimes Murray’s paranoia is warranted but sometimes its just a little too much. 

“We don’t know that.” Murray shook his head. “We have to be careful about what we say, all the time.” Alexei just sighed and grabbed another slice of bacon from his plate. “One day you’re gonna see that everything I was paranoid about has been true.”

“I’m not saying it’s not true, I’m just saying...” What  _ was _ he saying? “I’m just saying, relax. Even if people can understand us, it doesn’t mean they’re listening in, and regardless, who would believe what we’ve been saying?”

“People who are trailing us,” Murray told him. “There might be-”

Alexei cut him off, “And they would be from the American government who already  _ know _ about everything we’re talking about. Why would anyone else be following us?”

“For you. They could have found out that you’re still alive and...” Murray sighed. 

“Then they would have tried something already. Or if they’re waiting for us to be alone, then they’ll have to wait longer, because we’re in a big city.” Alexei reached over the table to take Murray’s hand. “You see? By then we’ll have figured out someone is following us, don’t you think?” Murray nodded and sighed again.

“You’re right, I’m just worried. This is all going so well, everything is go good, I’m just waiting for it to fall apart,” Murray told him softly, squeezing Alexei’s hand. 

“Why does it have to fall apart? Why can’t there be good things that happen in the world? To us?” Alexei smiled at him. 

Murray gave him a soft smile. “You...are way to optimistic for someone as cynical as me, sweetheart.” 

“I can be cynical.” Alexei shrugged. “Most people are stupid.”

“No that’s misanthropic, not cynical. Cynical is knowing that things usually don’t work out well,” Murray explained.

“Things don’t usually work out because people are stupid.” Alexei pointed one of his sausage links at him before taking a bite.

Murray nodded. “That  _ is _ true. You see I’m cynical  _ and _ misanthropic. Everyone and everything is awful.” 

“Even me?” A slow grin started on Alexei’s face.

“You’re an exception,” Murray said, “Obviously.”

“So not  _ everyone  _ is awful, not even  _ everything _ .” Alexei grinned and Murray rolled his eyes. “You make yourself out to be this awful stubborn guy but you’re really not, Moshy.”

Murray gasped dramatically. “I told you not to call me that in public.” Alexei could tell that it was fake anger and that Murray really didn’t mind the pet name. 

“Where are you gonna take me first?” Alexei asked. 

“I told you, it’s a surprise. God, you’re just like a little kid aren’t you, can’t wait for anything.” Murray shook his head and took a sip of his coffee. “Just relax a little, we have all day. Is that a way to tell me you want to go now?” Alexei nodded. “See what I told you? All that sugar.” He shook his head and pushed his chair back to stand up. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes that is the role (russian assassin trying to blow up the stock market) Alexei's actor Alex Utgoff plays in Jack Ryan.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay in getting a chapter out, days kinda meld together. But this chapter is longer so, enjoy that?

Murray turned in the key and they both headed out to get back in the van. Alexei leaned his head back on the headrest and watched as Murray started up the car. “It was a good honeymoon,” he said softly.

Murray looked over at him and smiled. “I’m glad, sweetheart.” He reached over and squeezed Alexei’s knee before putting his hand back on the wheel and pulling out of the parking lot. 

“I still wanna know where you’re taking me,” Alexei said with a smile as they started their journey. “I hate waiting.”

“I figured as much.” Murray shook his head. “I think you’ll see it when we get close. I’m not telling you any more than that.” Alexei let out a noise and turned his head to look out the window. “Don’t worry, we’re not that far away.” Alexei made another noise. “You’ll survive.”

The van pulled onto a highway and Murray pushed the car to keep up with the other speeding vehicles. ”You know,” Murray began again, “The van  _ is _ running a lot better after you looked at it.”

“Of course it is.” Alexei shrugged. “I could make it fly if I had the right parts.” He looked back over at Murray. “It would have been better if you kept up with the maintenance, you know.”

“I know I know.”

“And got the oil changed regularly.”

“But now I have  _ you _ to do that for me.” Murray glanced over at him and grinned. “And I don’t have to be ripped off taking it into the shop.”

“Whoa, is that what you’re gonna show me?” Alexei pointed as a large fountain came into view. 

“One of the things, yeah,” Murray turned to take an exit, “Buckingham fountain. I wish I could have shown you when it was all lit up at night, but this will have to do.”

“It’s huge!” Alexei almost had his nose pressed to the window as they turned onto a street nearby to find some parking. “Someone could go swimming in there.” He had seen fountains before, obviously, but this one was bigger than any he’d seen.

“Yeah I’m sure people have, but I wouldn’t, I’m sure the water is filthy,” Murray said as he found a place to park. “You wanna walk up to it? There’s a few gardens and things around it, I thought it’d be nice to walk with you...” He shrugged.

Alexei was already unbuckling his seatbelt, eagerly. “Yes. Let’s go.” It didn’t seem that Alexei had any hesitations about the idea like Murray did. Alexei got out and stretched in the sunlight with a smile. It wasn’t sunny very much in Russia, mostly cold all the time, so Alexei always took time to soak in the sun if he had the chance, which he usually didn’t because he was always working on something.

Murray walked over to Alexei’s side with a smile. “It’s probably going to rain later, you know?”

“That’s later.” Alexei shrugged before taking his hand. “You lead.”

Murray led him from the parking lot to a small garden, heading towards a bronze statue. He pointed to is as they approached it. “This was one of our better presidents. Abraham Lincoln. Freed the slaves, won the civil war, then got assassinated for it.”

Alexei looked up at the bearded man cast in bronze, sitting and staring down at him. “Interesting. I guess people didn’t like that he did those things?”

“Some people did, some people didn’t. You can never please everyone.” Murray shrugged and started leading Alexei away from the statue. They waited at a crosswalk to cross the street to where the large fountain was, passing rows of trees spaced evenly apart as well as some smaller fountains to the side. The reached a large courtyard where the fountain sat in the middle, shooting water into the air. 

It was even more magnificent as they approached. They stood at the edge of it, the skyline of Chicago to one side and Lake Michigan to the other. “Why is it so big?” Alexei asked as he watched the water.

“I told you, everything is big in America.” Murray shrugged and looked at the fountain. “I think it was here since...1920 or something? That’s when things started being built up again.” He looked behind them and to Alexei. “It’s symmetrical on both sides, unless you want to look at the lake, that’s really all there is here. Nothing special just a big ass fountain.”

“It’s amazing though.” Alexei was still looking at the fountain, watching the water and studying the bronze figures. “When you saw it for the first time, did you think it was nothing special?”

“Well… I was younger then.” Murray shrugged again.

“So?” Alexei looked over at him finally. “Just because you’re older or have already seen something before doesn’t mean you can’t think they’re still amazing. Like at the carnival in Hawkins.”

“I was enjoying showing you around than being there myself. I would have never gone to something like that.”

“Then enjoy showing me around. We can do more of that if that’s what it takes to get you to enjoy something,” Alexei told him, “Show me all of America.”

Murray shook his head, “It wasn’t the place we were at or  _ what _ we were doing, but the company, Alyosha. I enjoy myself when I’m with you.” 

Alexei smiled at him and grabbed his hand again. “Show me the lake!” Murray smiled as they started walking over to the even larger body of water at their side.

“One of the great lakes of North America.” Murray said as they finally crossed the courtyard to look over the water. “We should come back for St. Patrick’s day, they dye part of the river green.”

Alexei looked over at him. “What?” 

Murray nodded at him. “Yeah they started it in the sixties. It’s bright green too. Not sure how safe it is, but there’s no one really swimming in the water anyway.” He shrugged. “We’ll come back and see it next year.”

“Does America celebrate St. Patrick’s day a lot? Russia doesn’t at all,” Alexei told him. “In fact...I’m not really sure how you celebrate it?”

“You’re asking what the big deal is?” Murray asked, raising his eyebrow. “It’s for Irish people, mostly, but that doesn’t stop other people from celebrating it by drinking too much. Obviously, Ireland, green, that’s where the green river comes in. It’s just another tradition, I think it’s a lot more obvious in Boston because of the Irish immigrants settled down in that area most. I’m not too sure though.” 

“So you just drink on that day? Doesn’t sound so bad.” Alexei nodded, Russians and Irish could definitely bond over drinking. 

“That and wear green so you don’t get pinched. But that’s more of a kids thing to do.” Murray shrugged. 

“Pinched? Why would you get pinched?”

“Well, I….I actually don’t know. It’s just a thing.” Murray frowned. “I’m sure there’s some tradition to it, but I don’t know, that was just the way it always was.”

“Maybe I’ll ask Joyce if she knows-”

“No. I’ll find out for you.” Murrary narrowed his eyes out at the water and Alexei grinned. 

“I’m just joking with you, I wasn’t really going to ask Joyce.” He smiled and bumped Murray’s shoulder with his own.

Murray looked back over at him. “Good. Besides, I’m sure Joyce doesn’t know either. Let’s get going,” he said and started leading Alexei back to the car. “I think we should go and do what we need to do because the next place I want to take you is as we leave the city, so we can go there last.”

“Okay.” Alexei allowed himself to be led back to the van. “We need to get paint, oh and I want to get little porch swing? I think that would be nice.”

“Sure. I think I know of a home improvement store we can go nearby to argue over paint colors.” Murray looked over at him. “And curtains too, and they might have bookcases there, since I’ll have to move my collection over eventually.”

“And I’m sure I’ll be getting some books too, eventually.” Alexei nodded. Probably technical manuals if anything. “It’ll be nice.” He smiled over at Murray and squeezed his hand.

“We might need some art for the walls too, at least for the living room and dining room. I almost forgot about that. I’ll keep my propaganda posters to the bedroom,” Murray told him.

“You don’t  _ have  _ to. It’s  _ our _ house, it doesn’t have to be anything we don’t want. We’re the ones living there after all. If it’s not just how we like it, what’s the point?” Alexei told him softly. “You can put your posters up, I don’t mind. And if we find a Russian flag? I’m gonna be putting that up on the ceiling of the bedroom, right above the bed.” He grinned.

“Alright, I say no to that. If it’s  _ our _ house, we both have a say.” Murray shook his head. 

“I’m gonna be the one looking at it since I’m gonna be the one on my back all the time.” This caused Murray to make a choking noise and Alexei continued to grin. “Am I wrong?”

“Yes, because I might want you to ride me, then I’d be the one on my back,” Murray pointed out as they got back to the van. 

“But then you should be paying attention to me and not the ceiling.” Alexei winked and let go of his hand to walk around to the passenger’s side. The conversation continued as they both got in the van and closed the doors. “Why would you be looking at anything other than me?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” Murray gave him a look. “Do you not like looking at my beautiful face?” He smiled.

“Oh Moshy, you know I do.” Alexei smiled over at him as Murray started the van up. “But sometimes I want to think of Russia too.” They both laughed at that, knowing the other was kidding. 

“Look, if we find a Russian flag, I don’t know how or why we would considering the political climate, but if we  _ do _ , you can have it. Just don’t hang it over the bed.” Murray shook his head and smiled. 

“I wasn’t going to hang it above the bed. That’s where the mirror goes.” This caused Murray to hit the break just as they were pulling out of the parking spot, causing the van to jolt. 

“You gotta stop doing that while I’m driving, baby,” Murray looked over at him, “you’re gonna get us killed.”

Alexei grinned at him. “I just like surprising you, that’s all.”

“Well sometimes I don’t expect the things that come out of that pretty mouth of yours, darling.” Murray started backing up the van again. “You have an air of innocence to you, but then you come out with the most...”

“Hey, the first time it happened I was just saying my new, American name.” Alexei grinned, getting ready to say it again.

“Don’t say it again, I don’t think my heart could take it.” Alexei chuckled at that and looked out the window at the fountain one last time.

Luckily there was a hardware shop not too far away that sold home goods like what they were looking for. They parked close to the front and got out. “What’s your opinion on wallpaper if we find a nice one?” Alexei started as they walked into the store and Murray grabbed a cart.

“If it’s nice, I don’t mind. It’ll be quicker than painting.” Murray shrugged and started off to the paint section, Alexei following close behind. 

It was a strange warehouse type building, like the store forgot that there was exposed piping on the ceiling and just decided to go with it. But that also meant that it was strangely warm in the building, all the cooler air deciding to try and cool things from the top down, getting lost in the ceiling. The floors were grey concrete as well, making Alexei think that it was just a converted warehouse after all. It was also strangely quiet in there as well, all the sound travelling upwards to the ceiling. 

There was a rainbow of paint color cards, so many choices but Murray moved to the white and off whites section. 

“So like this one.” Murray pulled out a card with four similar off white colors. 

Alexei looked at the card. “Those are the same colors…”

Murray looked over at him. “No, there’s a difference, it goes from more white to less white...” Alexei gave him a look. “Don’t tell me you’re colorblind...”

“No? I have to deal with different color wires all the time, I’m not colorblind, these just all look very similar.” Alexei handed him back the card with a shake of his head. “Why don’t we go towards a lighter gray?”

Murray took out another card from the wall, this time white colors with a tinge of gray. They were at least better than the other card in Alexei’s opinion, so he pointed to one at the bottom that was the most gray leaning. 

“For the living room?” Murray looked over at him. “Are you sure you don’t want a nice eggshell?” He pointed to a white leaning towards yellow.

“No.”

“This is it, the first fight, isn’t it?” 

Alexei made a face. “No? This isn’t a fight, is this a fight? Over paint colors? No.” He refused to believe their first fight was going to be over something as mundane as that. “We can do eggshell for the little wall in the dining room.”

“I like the compromise.” Murray nodded, taking both of the paint color cards. “Do you want to pick out a color for the bedroom and then go look at the wallpaper?”

Alexei nodded. “Yeah, what color do we want for the bedroom? The furniture is a little red, and the sheets you picked out are dark...” He reminded the other. 

Murray made a face at the wall of colors. “Slate gray?” He picked out a blue gray from the cards and showed Alexei. Alexei made a so-so hand gesture. “Why don’t we try to find some good wallpaper instead and this color could be our backup?”

“Yeah, or we can do a wall that color and the rest wallpaper? Or switched.” Alexei shrugged. 

“You just want to make more work for us, don’t you?” Murray shook his head and put the color cards in the front of the basket. 

“It’ll be fun. Maybe we could ask Joyce and the kids to come help?” Alexei suggested with another shrug. “That way we can push the work on them.”

“And get sub-par work,” Murray countered. 

“It’s just one color, I’m sure they’re smart enough not to mess up, and if they aren’t then we can go back over the spots again. Would you rather do  _ some _ work, or  _ all _ of the work?” Alexei asked, raising his eyebrow at him. 

“I mean...I was just going to get you started and then let you do most of it anyway.” Murray looked over but didn’t see that Alexei was surprised by that turn of events. 

“I figured you’d do something like that,” he said with a smile. “I’d figure you’d make me drinks and tell me when I’ve missed a spot.”

“I am I that transparent to you?” Murray shook his head as they moved on to the section with the wallpaper. They both had a grimace on their face when they looked through the selection, as it was mostly flowers. Big flowers, small flowers. Nothing really...masculine. “How about these stripes? Stripes are good.”

Alexei pulled out a faint blue striped pattern. It wasn’t the best but it definitely wasn’t the worst they’d seen. The stripe would go along the top of the wall and was wide enough that it would take up a lot of space, the rest of the wall was white. “Sure, let’s get that and then we can paint one wall that other color?”

“Looks like we have a plan.” Murray smiled at him but then sighed heavily. “We don’t know the dimensions of the room for how much wallpaper we’d need.”

“Fuck.” Alexei made a face. “Well...it’s not like it’s a hard design, we can use the paint and make it?” 

Murray nodded and put the wallpaper sample back. “Then we just get the paint, the slate would go well with the grayer one, I think?”

“We can do all three in the bedroom? The eggshell one could be the base and then we can do one bigger stripe and one smaller stripe?” Alexei suggested. “So we only need to get the three paint colors.”

Murray nodded again. “Yeah, I think I like that idea.” He paused. “I’m sorry this is so boring, I literally would rather be doing anything other than this.”

“Even being tortured?” Alexei asked with a small smile on his face. “It’s boring but necessary. We don’t want to look at ugly walls forever, do we?”

“This  _ is _ torture, don’t you see?” Murray started pushing the cart over to the cans of mix paint. 

“Even with me here with you?” Alexei asked, moving to wrap his arms around Murray’s arm and lean into him.

“Yes, you’re a demon sent to torture and tempt me as well.” Even though Murray said that, he leaned into Alexei. 

“Am I doing a good job at least?”

“Oh the best, I would expect a raise once you get back to hell. Maybe even a promotion.” Murray smiled at him. 

“Oh a promotion? Give a good word to my boss when you get down there.” Alexei said with a laugh.

“I will give the highest praise.” Murray chuckled a little himself. They walked passed the window coverings and stopped by the curtains. “We have...three windows? Kitchen, living room, and oh well I guess two bedrooms.”

“I think we should just get plain ones,” Alexei said, tired of looking at colors and trying to match them up to pictures of what they had previously have bought in his head. 

“White? They’re gonna be a pain to clean.” Murray grabbed at some fabric samples. “Heavier or lighter?”

“Heavier in the bedrooms to block out the light. Lighter in the living rooms and kitchen,” Alexei said, stretching and yawning. 

Murray looked over at him and shook his head. “Tired again?” 

“Tired of this. Take me somewhere fun,” Alexei gave a little whine.

“We’re almost done, don’t you want your porch swing?” Murray shook his head and grabbed some curtains to put in the cart. 

“Yes.” Alexei sighed. “And bookcases maybe? I don’t know what they have here. Garden stuff for you?”

“They’ll definitely have garden stuff, we can ask around for the bookcases, I’m not sure they have those,” Murray said off hand as he started pushing the cart again. “What’s wrong with the bookcases I have back in the bunker?”

“You mean the ones that are on bricks?” Alexei gave him a look, “Yeah we’re not taking those to the house.”

“They work perfectly fine, thank you very much.” Murray shook his head. “But fine. We can see if they have them here.” He pushed the cart over to an employee and started asking him in English. The employee shook his head but then pointed over to where the garden center obvious was. 

Murray then nodded and started to push the cart towards the garden center. “He said selves, yes, can you put books on them, yes, but not specific bookshelves.”

“We’ll have to go someplace else then,” Alexei said with a sigh as they walked into the garden center. 

“We’re just getting the seeds or something, I’m sure we can get everything else back in Hawkins, since it’s a farming town,” Murray said as he passed the greenery and over to a wall of seeds. “The porch swing should be over by the patio furniture.” Murray nodded over to where that sort of thing was set up closer to the entrance of the garden section. “Why don’t you go look for something and I’ll be over in a minute.”

“Remember what happened last time we split up?” Alexei raised his eyebrow.

“I’ll be in eyesight, you don’t have to worry.” Murray shook his head. “Go find something nice and we can ask Hopper to set it up with power tools or something.” Alexei sighed and started off towards the patio furniture. He didn’t know why they couldn’t just set something up with power tools themselves, it wouldn’t be hard. Alexei knew how to use power tools at least. 

Alexei looked over at the porch swings, some of them set up for demonstration. Some looked more sturdy than others, and he knew he wanted to get a sort of bench type thing, so both of them could sit outside on nice days. He always thought thats what he’d do when he had a house of his own and had time to himself. Just sit outside with some coffee or something and think. And watch as the day went by. 

It was strange to think that all he wanted to do was nothing. After so long of being on the go, not really having time to rest, time to do what  _ he _ wanted to do, it made sense that he would want a day, a week even, to just not do anything at all. And here, in America, he might be able to have that. He  _ will _ be able to have that, with Murray. 

He sat down on one of the display benches. This one was free standing, so they only had to worry about power tool while they were setting it up, not for anchoring it to the house. Although maybe they wanted one that was anchored to the ceiling of the porch, would that be more or less sturdy than a free standing one?

Alexei looked up to determine the integrity of the bar that ran above him. It seemed like it would hold a lot of weight and probably wouldn’t bend under stress. He felt someone sit down beside him and he looked over. 

“This seat taken?” Murray asked with a smile. “I like this one.” 

Alexei nodded. “Seems sturdy, and we wouldn’t have to secure it to the house. The cushion could use some work though.” He squeezed at the cushion and made a face. “Maybe they sell those here too.”

“Yeah, probably more expensive than they should be for just cushions.” Murray muttered. “Does this swing even come with this cushion or is it sold separately? See, that’s how they get you to pay more.”

Alexei shrugged. “I think this one is good, we’ll look for another cushion though.” He nodded. “Did you get your seeds?”

“Yeah, I got some other flowers and stuff too. I guess we’ll see if I’m any good at growing plants. The only plants I’ve been in charge of were my mother’s houseplants when I was little, and they all died tragically.”

“Well, we’ll just have to plant them at the back of the house so no one can see if you fail.” Alexei grinned at him and stood up. “I’ll go look for a cushion, go find a worker so we can get one of these.”

“Make sure you get a waterproof one. And something that’s soft.” Murray pointed out as Alexei started off towards where the outdoor accessories were, which wasn’t too far away from where the patio furniture was. 

He quickly settled on a blue striped pattern that seemed soft enough and felt like it could repel a good rainstorm. Not that Alexei knew if Indiana had an abundance of rainstorms or not. At least it would be protected from the snow...Indiana got snow, right?

He would have to ask about the weather around there, since it was clear that Alexei didn’t know what he was going to face after summer. It was definitely humid, so maybe there would be some rain, although how much, Alexei wasn’t sure. He brought the cushion back to Murray, who was talking with a salesman.

Murray said something to the salesman and nodded before the other man walked off, leaving Murray standing there. “That one doesn’t look too bad.” He reached for it to test it’s softness. “It’ll do, they don’t last more than a few years anyway.” Murray folded it up the best he could to put in the cart. “We need to go get these paint colors mixed. It’s a bit of waiting around, which is why we’re doing it last.”

Alexei nodded. “Lead the way, I’m assuming they’re holding the swing up by the register?”

“You assume correctly.” Murray started to lead him back into the enclosed store before stopping. “We probably need a lawn mower, don’t we?”

“Yes.” Alexei nodded, not having thought of that either. “Don’t worry, we can get kids to cut it for us.”

“You’re depending an awful lot on these kids you’ve never really met.” Murray looked over at him and Alexei shrugged. 

“They’re kids. Basically universal. They all want pocket money.” 

“But that means we have to interact with them more,” Murray said with a grimace. “I rather not.”

Alexei shook his head. “We need to get a lawn mower regardless.” 

“The idea of mowing a lawn is exhausting,” Murray said as he started to move in the section where the lawn mowers were displayed. “We just need a simple one that cuts grass, no bells and whistles.”

Alexei was already looking at one of the newer models. “Huh?”

“Not that one.”

“But if the newer ones work better-”

“-you can fix it if it breaks down. Just get one of the older models.” Murray shook his head and crossed his arms. “You didn’t do this with the toaster or anything like that.”

“Because the toaster...” Alexei sighed. “Fine.” He pointed to an older model, nothing exciting. “That one.”

“Acceptable, put it on the bottom of the cart.” Murray said and Alexei turned to look at him. 

“Oh you want me to do all the heavy lifting, alright.” Alexei shook his head and hefted the lawnmower box--which was lighter than he thought--on the bottom rack of the cart. 

“Time to mix some paint,” Murray said once Alexei was standing upright again.

“Will it take very long?” Alexei asked as they started to walk over to the paint mixing area.

“We have a lot of paint that we need, so I have no idea.” Murray shrugged. Luckily there was no line so they just walked up to the counter and Murray started to tell the attendant what they wanted, pointing to the colors on the cards. 

Alexei leaned against the counter and waited, looking up at the too tall ceiling. There was definitely insulation up there, did they just forgot to finish the ceiling before they opened the store? Were they planning on putting anything to cover up the exposed pipes and insulation anytime soon? 

Murray bumped him, “They said they’d be done in ten minutes. What are you looking at?” Alexei pointed up to the ceiling. “Oh, yeah, I don’t know why but that’s a trend with these sorts of stores. I guess they wanted it to look more industrial or something? Don’t ask me, I don’t think anyone knows.”

“Where are we going next?” Alexei asked softy, looking over at the paint being mixed. 

“Well, we could either go find a place to get bookcases, or we can go to the next thing I wanted to show you?” Murray asked him, watching him.

Alexei looked at him. “You said the other place is going out of town?”

“We can get bookshelves anywhere. Besides, my books can stay at the bunker for a while.” Murray shrugged. “What do you want to do?”

“Let’s go to the next place.”


	20. Chapter 20

They put the buckets of paint in the back of the van along with everything else they bought at the home improvement store that day, both settling into their seats with a sigh. 

“The bed gets to the house tomorrow, right?” Alexei asked him, turning his head to look at him. 

“Yeah, along with the rest of the furniture. We’ll have to paint the walls before then.” Murray nodded and started the car. “Or just put everything in the middle of the living room and then paint the walls.”

“You know we’ll probably have to do that. It’s okay, we’ll be careful. No paint fights.” Alexei smiled and Murray glanced over at him. “Not that I was planning on accidentally getting paint on you.”

“Uh huh.” Murray shook his head. “I completely believe you.” They got back on the freeway again and started driving south. “It’s not too far away, it’s still  _ in _ town, I think you’ll enjoy it. I  _ hope _ you will, anyway,” he said softly. 

“I’m sure I will,” Alexei told him with a little smile as he turned his head to watch the city go by out the window. “Will it top the fountain though?”

“I think it will,” Murray answered with a nod. “The fountain is gonna be boring compared to this I think. You’ll see. Just relax until we get there.”

Like a lot of the tourists attractions in Chicago, this one was close to the waters of lake Michigan with a grand entrance. “Is it a museum or something?” Alexei guessed as they drove around the massive building to part. 

“Chicago Museum of Science and Industry,” Murray told him with a smile. 

“Oh, you’re right! So much more interesting than the fountain.” Alexei grinned at him. “Although I did love the fountain.” He knew he was going to love this more, just from the name.

“There are some nice museums in Chicago, but I thought you’d like this one the most. Did you know that the building is from the 1890s world fair that they had here?” Murray parked the van a little ways away from the building, hoping that it wouldn’t be raining when they got out. 

“There was a world fair?” Alexei asked, picturing the carnival at Hawkins but bigger.

“Yeah, it was to show off like industrial things, I guess, just to show the world that America was amazing.” Murray shrugged. “What was most interesting about it though, was that there was a serial killer there. H.H. Holmes and his murder house,” He said dramatically.

“Of course you’d be interested in the serial killer.” Alexei rolled his eyes and got out of the van. Although the idea of a murder house definitely piqued his interest, you didn’t hear that everyday.

Murray joined him around the side of the van so they could walk together. The wind was picking up and the sky was already starting to cloud over. “Yeah, he used to give lodgings to people who came for the fair, and then killed them creatively in his house. It’s interesting stuff.”

“Can we tour his murder house or something?” Alexei asked, slipping his hand in Murray’s as they walked to the entrance of the museum. 

“No, unfortunately not. It burned down mysteriously,” Murray said with a grin. “I’ll tell you more about it later, it’s fascinating.”

“Sure.” Alexei nodded, he’d like that. Although he wasn’t one for serial killers or anything like that, he liked that Murray was passionate about something. 

They stood in the short line and Murray paid for the tickets at the little ticket box at the front of the building. It was chilly inside, which said something about the cooling bill because the front room was massive, holding exhibits with things that didn’t look like they’d fit inside a building at all. Different kind of full sized airplanes were hung from the ceiling. The landscape of Chicago in miniature form was on a table in front of them as they walked in. Alexei was in awe and Murray watched him with a small smile on his face. 

“Cool huh,” Murray leaned close to him to speak. “I figured we could spend a couple of hours in here before we made our way home.” Alexei nodded and grabbed his hand again to start leading him to something interesting he saw. There would probably be a lot of instances like that as they walked around. 

It was like Alexei was a kid in a candy shop, although come to think of it, he’d probably act as excited in a candy shop as well. Once they got to some exhibits that Alexei knew something about, he would rattle off facts that went over Murray’s head most of the time, but he listened anyway. Alexei especially got excited when they were in front of the steam train exhibit, making some people turn and look at him warily, as well as the submarine where Murray physically had to pull him through the walk through otherwise he would have spent hours in there studying it. 

Of course they had to go through the gift shop. Murray picked up a poster of the submarine split into different levels that he thought would fit nice with his propaganda posters, and Alexei got a geeky mug that looked like a beaker with the museum’s logo on it. Murray stopped him from getting the model of the submarine the build, instead enticing him with a plasma ball that was much cheaper.

It was just starting to rain again as they walked out to the van. The ground was already wet and the sky was dark with clouds. They would definitely be driving back in the rain. They managed to get into the van just as the rain was starting to get heavier, at least it wasn’t cold rain. 

Alexei smiled over at him as Murray wiped the water droplets off of his head. “That was the best.” He leaned over and pulled Murray into a kiss.

Murray blinked as Alexei pulled away. “Oh...it’s like that then.”

“I think we should go back to the bunker to sleep, then go to the house early tomorrow,” Alexei told him, licking his lips and sitting back in his seat. Murray nodded slowly, looking back at their purchases today piled in the back seat and further back the trunk. 

Murray cleared his throat. “Yeah, let’s do that,” he said and started the van up. “Before we get too far out of the city, are you hungry?” It had been more than a couple of hours since they ate although they both had big breakfasts. 

“Maybe we can stop at 7-11 and get some snacks,” Alexei suggested before looking out the window at the rain now pouring down. “Or we could wait…”

“I still have food at the house, we can wait a few more hours.” Murray looked over at him for a second before starting up the can and pulling out of the space. 

“True,” Alexei said, stretching and yawning in his seat. He sunk down in the seat a little bit, stretching his legs out as much as he could.

“You’re gonna go to sleep, aren’t you?” Murray asked, glancing over at him every couple of seconds, while trying to drive. 

“Probably.” Alexei looked over at him and smiled. “I’ll make dinner tonight if you want in exchange?” 

“Can you even cook?” Murray asked him as they hit the freeway.

“Depends on what it is.” Alexei shrugged. “If it’s something simple I can do it. Or you could tell me what to do.”

“Or I could just cook.” Murray shook his head. “And you can still nap. It’s still a good exchange, you’re cute and innocent looking when you’re sleeping.”

“Creep.” Alexei smiled. “I had fun today though. It was a great honeymoon.” 

“Yeah, it was fun.” Murray reached over and took Alexei’s hand, squeezing it before returning his own hand to the wheel again. “I’m glad you liked it, baby.”

“Don’t know how you’re gonna top it for our anniversary.” Alexei grinned over at him. 

“Oh I got some ideas. Go to sleep, you.” 

Alexei scoffed, “Not even going to tell me?”

“It’s not for another  _ year _ , go to sleep!” Murray gave a little chuckle. Alexei smiled again and made himself as comfortable as he could be on the passenger’s seat without undoing his seatbelt. “Grab a pillow from the back, baby.” Murray shook his head. Alexei grumbled and turned around in his seat to see if the pillows they bought were in reach. Of course they weren’t. 

Alexei undid his seatbelt and carefully maneuvered to the back to grab a pillow then back into his seat. He buckled himself in again and got comfy with the pillow. “Better.” He squirmed until he was in a comfortable position again on the seat. 

“I’ll wake you up when we get there,” Murray told him, turning the radio down low. Lulling Alexei to sleep with the sound of rain and soft jazz. 


	21. Chapter 21

Alexei woke just a few minutes before they got back to the bunker. He yawned and stretched, looking over at Murray. “You look tired...you should nap while I make food,” he said as they pulled the van into the gravel yard. 

“I could go for that.” Murray nodded and turned off the car, siting back in his seat. “Have a nice nap?” He looked over at him.

Alexei smiled and nodded, rubbing the back of his neck. There was a crick there but nothing too bad, he wasn’t going to complain. “Just tell me what to make and how to make it and I can wake you up when its done,” Alexei said softly. 

“Yeah I will.” Murray nodded and they both started to slowly get out of the car, both stiff from sitting in the same position for too long. Of course neither tried to show it as they walked around the front of the van. “You good old man?”

“Not much older than you.” Murray made a face. “We can get you some clothes for tomorrow out of the bags later.” He said as he opened the metal door to the bunker. Once the door was open, the sound of a shrill telephone ring could be heard coming from inside. “Who’s calling me? Don’t they know I just want to be left alone?” Murray muttered before walking inside and picking up the telephone. “ **_Hel_ ** -.... **_Hi mom_ ** .” He visibly deflated once he heard his mother’s voice on the other end. Alexei walked in, smiling at him and Murray shooed him away. 

Alexei let Murray’s english wash over him as he walked into the kitchen to see what he could fix for dinner. They were both starving no doubt, and although the breakfast was big, they had been walking a lot, especially in the museum. What he found in the fridge wasn’t too promising. Eggs, butter, syrup, various condiments, maybe some bread? Although it looked a little stale, even without opening the bag it was in. The freezer wasn’t any better. It definitely needed to be defrosted though, it was like siberia in there. A forgotten ice tray, something that might have been meat at one time, a bag of frostbitten vegetables. What exactly did Murray expect them to make for dinner tonight? Maybe eggs?

Or maybe Alexei would wait for Murray to get off the phone with his mother. Alexei smiled, he really couldn’t wait to meet her. He wondered if Murray was talking about him right now, telling his mother about him. He peeked around the corner at Murray talking animatedly on the phone.

Meanwhile, while Murray was still on the phone, Alexei walked back out to the car to grab some clothes for tomorrow. They had a lot of work ahead of them with the house, but it was going to be worth it in the long run. Alexei was excited, everything was turning out better and better.

Murray was still on the phone with his mother when Alexei walked back in. He gave Alexei a shake of his head as he listened to his mom go on and on about something, he didn’t even remember what they had been talking about at this point.

Alexei smiled and put his clothes for tomorrow on the couch before going to wrap his arms around Murray from behind, putting his chin over his shoulder. He started softly kissing up the side of Murray’s neck as Murray tried to get his mother off the phone. 

Once he hung up the phone, he turned around in Alexei’s arms and hugged him tightly, burying his face in the other’s neck. “She’s horrible.”

“You love her.” Alexei smiled. 

“Yes but she’s horrible,” Murray said again, shaking his head a little bit. “I told her our new address and said that that I found an omega...she wanted to know everything.”

“Of course, she wanted to see if I’m good enough for you.” Alexei nodded.

“You are, I could have told her that,” Murray said, muffled with his face against Alexei’s neck, breathing in his scent deeply. “You smell good, I don’t just smell soap anymore, it’s just you. I like it.”

Alexei smiled. “What do I smell like?”

“...Home.” Murray hugged him a little tighter with that response. 

“Well you-” Alexei buried his face in Murray’s neck and breathed in deeply. “Smell perfect. Like old books...” He pulled away and shook his head. “I need to stop that. We need to eat something.” 

Murray chuckled. “Just can’t get enough of me, huh?”

“No.” Alexei pulled himself away. “What are we gonna eat? I see that you have eggs in your refrigerator.”

“Ah but you didn’t look in the cupboards.” Murray smiled at him and started off towards the kitchen. “That is where all the secrets lay.”

Alexei gave him a look, all he could think that came from cupboards was in a can, not a particularly filling meal. Murray went and pulled out two boxes of what looked like rice. 

“Rice a roni.” Murray smiled. “Easy to make and delicious.” He put the two boxes on the counter and pulled out a pan. “Get some butter.” He nodded to the fridge. 

Alexei grabbed the butter and sat it down beside the boxes. It did kinda look appetizing on the box, but foods were always dressed up to look better on the box than when you cook it. 

Murray started up one of the burners and put some butter in the pan. “First you have to cook the rice until it’s golden brown, you’ll know when it’s ready, then put two cups of water in and the seasoning packet, let it simmer and bam! So easy I don’t even need to look at the box to see if it’s right.” He turned to Alexei. “Just double the recipe for the two boxes. Four cups of water, but it usually doesn’t even take that, I would do like three? Otherwise if comes out soupy.” He patted Alexei on the shoulder before turning to leave. “The only way to mess it up is to burn the rice, so don’t burn the rice.”

Of course Murray left him alone for this task. Alexei looked at the butter melting in the pan before hurrying to open the boxes and pour the rice into the pan. He had to fish out the seasoning packets of course, he had forgotten Murray said they were in there. After finding a spatula in one of the drawers, Alexei quickly stirred the rice around so it was evenly distributed around the pan. It was a small task, don’t let the rice burn, and he was definitely going to make Murray proud.

“Murray, how much is cups? I don’t understand American measurements.” Alexei called out, hoping that he wasn’t waking Murray up from a nap. 

“Measuring cup in the cupboard with the glasses!” Murray called back, seemingly from the couch. Alexei opened the cupboard and found a cup with numbers on the side, this must be what Murray was talking about.

Alexei stirred the rice again, comparing it to the picture on the front of the box to what was in the pan. He stirred it again, watching it closely. It seemed like it was going to take a while for the rice to brown, especially with two boxes worth of rice in the pan. He stirred it again before going to see where Murray was. 

He looked over the back of the couch to see Murray attempting to nap. Without opening his eyes he said, “Patience is a virtue.” Alexei let out a sigh through his nose and walked back into the kitchen. Sure he could sit for hours and tinker with some mechanical thing but this was not as mentally stimulating. He stirred the rice again.

As he was staring into the cooking rice, Murray walked back into the kitchen. “Shoo, shoo, I don’t trust you and your patience too not burn the rice.” He grabbed the spatula from Alexei and moved in front of the pan. “Go do something else.” He waved him away. Alexei was about to ask him if he was sure before Murray waved him off again. 

Well at least he didn’t have to have that responsibility. Alexei walked back into the living room and turned on the tv, this time he grabbed the remote and moved through the channels. He couldn’t understand anything, sure, but at least he had a better understanding of what Americans like to watch on tv. Boring things. He stopped it at a show that had suspenseful music and watched it for a little bit.

“Press the CC button on the remote for subtitles,” Murray said from behind him. ”Not that it’d make you understand it better, but you could start to match the word to what they’re saying.” He shrugged and stepped back into the kitchen. Alexei pressed the Closed Captions button and tried to follow along with what the actors were saying. It wasn’t going too well. They just spoke so fast, even trying to read the subtitles at the bottom was a challenge. 

At least he knew a few words so far. No, stop, cat, tree...Magnet. He was sure that Joyce would help him with more, she was good at teaching things and it was fun to watch her mime things out. Maybe he should try and change it to a different channel. One for children so he could follow along with the words. 

Just as he was about to change the channel again, Murray walked back in and sat down. “Now it just needs to simmer. What are we watching?” He looked over at the tv. “Baby...sweetheart. This is in Spanish.” Murray smiled and shook his head, grabbing the remote from him. “No wonder.”

Alexei just shrugged, how was he supposed to know the difference? Both languages were incomprehensible to him. Murray changed it to a different movie, in English this time. “There we go.” Murray smiled over at him. “Easy Rider.” He stood up to go check on the rice as a few men on motorcycles rode onto the screen.

Alexei watched what was going on on the screen. He never understood the appeal of motorcycles, they seemed dangerous. Besides, he couldn’t imagine either of them riding on one. Maybe Murray, when he was younger, he seemed like more of a wild child than Alexei was. Although Alexei did have his rebellious stages, when he was stupid and young. He smiled thinking about the stupid shit he did. 

“What are you smiling about? What did you do?” Murray asked, walking back in to sit down again. 

“I was just thinking of you riding a motorcycle.” Alexei shook his head. 

“And why is that funny? I would look amazing on a motorcycle,” Murray said defensively.

“No, then I was thinking of the stupid shit I used to get up to when I was younger,” Alexei said with a smile. 

Murray moved closer. “Tell me.”

“Well, there wasn’t much to do, as you can imagine,” Alexei started. “So I used to climb up to the roof of the building my family was living in and...conduct experiments.”

“Experiments?” 

“First you have to realize that there was no roof access in my building, so I had to climb up the side? We lived on the third floor with two more floors above us,” Alexei told him with a smile. “Almost fell more than a few times but the worst I got was this scar on my knee?” He patted his left knee under his jeans. “I’m sure you’ve seen it.” Alexei pulled the leg of his jeans up the best he could to show Murray the scar, a thin line going across the top of his knee. 

“Oh, I see it now. Was it a bad cut?” Murray asked him. 

“It was a gash, blood everywhere. My mom almost killed me because of it,” Alexei said with a little chuckle. “Anyway, a lot of these experiments were just...hooking a potato or some other food that was starting to rot up to a car battery I found, and making it explode.”

“Wow, what a great way to spend your youth.” Murray shook his head. “The worst I did was pot and even then my mother found out about it and grounded me for a month. I guess I was monitored more than you were.”

“Your mom just knew what you were capable of and decided to stop it before you even began.” Alexei giggled.

Murray groaned and got up again, saying as he walked to the kitchen, “Getting you two together is going to kill me, I just know it.”


	22. Chapter 22

Neither wanted to get up early the next morning, perfectly content to be wrapped around each other and warm. Alexei grumbled as Murray started to move away but then yelped when his ass got slapped. “Get up.”

“No, fuck you,” Alexei groaned and hid his face in Murray’s pillow. It smelled wonderfully like him. He breathed in deeply.

“Are you _smelling my pillow_?” Murray asked, an unbelieving tone in his voice. “Come on babe, we need to get there before the furniture delivery does, and I know you don’t want to skip breakfast.”

Alexei groaned again and moved his head to give Murray a look. He was right of course, but Alexei didn’t have to like it. 

After a quick breakfast of coffee and scrambled eggs, they were off. Alexei decided to pass the time by studying with his Spell and Speak, the dictionary close by. He was wanting to learn at least a few more English words by the time they arrived at the house.

“Forget that thing, I’ll teach you some useful words,” Murray said once he had enough of Alexei trying to spell home without the e at the end. Alexei turned off the toy and looked over at Murray. “So you know how to say yes and no, right?”

“ **_Yes_ ** **.** ” Alexei smiled. 

“Good.” Murray nodded. “Well I guess we can start there. Good and bad.”

By the time they got to the house, bright and early, Alexei had learned the following: _Good, bad, car, van, road, food,_ and of course _, cherry._

They both got out of the car and stretched. They had beaten the furniture delivery by about an hour, if they were coming as scheduled, so they might have enough time to put a coat of paint on the walls. 

“Should we start on the bedroom or the living room?” Alexei asked as they started carrying the buckets of paint inside. 

“Well we can put all the furniture in the spare room for now,” Murray started, “Of course then we have to take it _out_ , which might pose a problem later.”

“It would be helpful if we had more people to help paint,” Alexei mentioned off hand, knowing that Murray would rather do it without help. “I still like the idea of piling everything in the center of the living room. We can put the bedroom stuff in the spare bedroom for now and move it when we get done painting in there.”

Murray nodded. “Yeah, we can do that. I’ll start laying down the plastic on the floor, keep grabbing those paint cans.” Alexei gave him a look, which Murray countered with a smile. 

Once Alexei was finished bringing all the paint supplies in, Murray rewarded him with a soft kiss. “Thank you, darling, you’re so strong.”

“And you’re very patronizing, it’s a good thing I like you.” Alexei shook his head with a smile. 

“You like me?” Murray acted surprised. 

“I like you a lot actually,” Alexei said with a sigh. “It’s a fault of mine.” He smiled and grabbed the paint for the bedroom to take it in there as he heard Murray scoff. “I’ll start painting in here, you watch for the delivery,” he called out. If they took separate rooms, they could do it quicker, and were less likely to distract one another.

Just as Alexei had set up his paint and started painting, soft music came from the living room. He put down his paint roller and went to investigate. Murray had a small record player balanced on a box. “What? We need music to work by don’t we?” He hadn’t even set up any of his painting things yet.

“Well turn it up so I can hear too.” Alexei shook his head and started to head back towards the bedroom when Murray grabbed his hand. 

“Dance with me first,” Murray asked softly, pulling him to the center of the living room. 

“You just want to get out of work.” Alexei smiled and held his hands up. “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Murray grabbed his hands, putting one on his shoulder and the other clasped with his own. “What you don’t dance in Russia?” Murray smiled and started swaying gently to the music.

“Not personally,” Alexei told him. “I didn’t have anyone to dance with and the music in Russia usually isn’t as upbeat.” 

“Communism isn’t too conductive to creativity, I suppose.” Murray chuckled. 

“No and we Russians aren’t a very happy bunch either.” Alexei smiled and twirled in Murray’s arms. 

“I can see that.” Murray smiled at him. “You obviously broke that mold.”

“...I wasn’t very happy until I met you,” Alexei said softly. 

Murray was silent for a moment before he nodded. “Me too.” Alexei smiled and kissed him softly. “You know, I don’t believe in coincidences.”

“I figured you didn’t,” Alexei smiled. “Get to work.” He gave him a lingering kiss before pulling away. 

“Work work work,” Murray tutted. “I wonder if you can get the bedroom painted before the furniture comes.”

“It’s gonna need more than one coat,” Alexei told him over his shoulder as he went back into the bedroom. 

“Better hurry up then,” Murray called back then started to hum along to the music under his breath.

Alexei had half of the room painted and his shirt off by the time the furniture delivery guys showed up. He figured that Murray could direct them and didn’t need any help, so he continued painting. It was definitely going to take another coat to get a nice solid color, not to mention the stripe that they wanted to add at the top. Maybe they could set up the bed in the other room for tonight.

It didn’t take long for all the furniture to be brought in and the drivers to leave. Murray knocked on the doorframe of the bedroom, causing Alexei to turn around. Murray whistled. “Wow, alright, shirt off, I like it. Time for a break, my love.”

Alexei smiled at him and put down his paintbrush. “How much have you gotten done?” He asked walking over to him. 

“Well, remember I had to direct the delivery men, so...” Alexei gave him a look. “But it looks like you’ve been making great progress in here. It looks great!”

“Shh, it’s break time. Kiss me,” Alexei said when he got close, pressing Murray back against the doorframe. 

“If you insist,” Murray muttered and pulled him into a soft kiss. “If this is what breaktime consists of, I elect we have breaks more often.” 

“You would,” Alexei muttered against the other’s lips. Murray ran his hands down Alexei’s sides, making Alexei shiver slightly. “We should open a window...because of the paint smell.” 

Murray hummed and kissed him again. “There’s the couch in the living room where we can continue this...”

“Depends on how long the break is.” Alexei grinned at him and took his hand to pull him into the living room. He glanced at the half a wall that was painted. “Only half a wall? I think you owe me in advance for all the hard work I’m going to be doing.”

“Oh yeah? And what would you like as payment?” Murray smiled at him, the music still playing in the background as he sat on the couch, still covered in plastic.

“Well...I’ve never had a blowjob before.” Alexei shrugged, sitting on the couch beside him. The plastic crinkled underneath him. “If...you’re okay with that... I know some alphas-”

“Shh, I’m not some alphas, I’ll give you anything you want, sweetheart.” Murray kissed his cheek and moved off the couch to get on his knees in front of him. 

Alexei moved his legs apart so Murray could settle between him. He smiled down at him. “It’s a good view.”

“Don’t be a brat.” Murray gave him a look an started unzipping Alexei’s jeans. 

“I’m just telling you it’s a good view, what about that is being a brat?” Alexei gave a laugh and pulled himself out of his pants, stroking himself a few times. “I think maybe you’re using the wrong word.”

“No, you’re a brat, you’ve always been a brat,” Murray said, batting Alexei’s hand away to replace it with his own. “A beautiful brat.” He kissed the tip of Alexei’s dick softly while still looking up at him.

Alexei let out a shaky breath and reached down for him, petting at the sides of his beard. “You’re too good to me...”

“You want me to be worse?” Murray smiled at him before licking down his cock with a groan. “You taste amazing,” he said softly as he buried his nose in the tuft of hair at the base of Alexei’s cock.

“No, you’re perfect,” Alexei sighed, putting his head back and closing his eyes. At least the couch was comfortable. “Come on, don’t tease me, this is my reward.”

Murray started mouthing and licking at the base of his cock, groaning a little at the taste, it was more concentrated there. Once Alexei was completely hard, Murray moved to take him into his mouth, little by little. 

“Fuck,” Alexei muttered then bit his bottom lip to stop a moan from escaping. Murray could only take about half of him in his mouth but that was more than enough to give Alexei pleasure.

Murray gripped the base of Alexei’s dick as he started licking and sucking at the head. He glanced up at him now and again, just to gage his reaction to certain things he did with his tongue. Alexei gave particularly good noises when Murray ran his tongue across the slit at the top of his cock as well as the place on the underside, just below the head. Murray was also fascinated with his foreskin, since he was circumcised himself. He was definitely going to play around more with it later on, but right now he like to run his tongue under it just a little, making Alexei squirm in his seat out of sensitivity.

“You tease me...” Alexei groaned out again, running his fingers over the bald part of Murray’s head to the back, lightly pressing him down so he took more of his cock into his mouth.

Murray moaned and started bobbing his head slowly, letting his tongue slowly run up and down as he did so. Alexei moaned and wiggled his hips, trying desperately not to thrust up into Murray’s mouth and choke him. 

Murray pulled off with a pop. “Such a pretty cock.” He looked up at Alexei and kissed the tip of his dick again. “It’s very pink.” He pressed the tip of his tongue against the slit at the tip just to watch Alexei squirm. “I love watching you like this.”

“You’re evil and you love teasing me, is what you mean.” Alexei glared down at him.

“You’re right, I love watching you squirm.” Murray smiled and swallowed him back down again, sucking on him hard. Alexei arched his back with a cry. 

Now Murray was pulling out all the stops, bobbing his head, twirling his tongue, and sucking hard. He loved hearing the moans he could pull out of Alexei, it made his own cock twitch in interest.

“Close.” Alexei managed to get out between moans and whimpers. “Fuck…” He gasped and came hard. Murray moaned and swallowed him all down eagerly, pulling away finally, just as much out of breath as Alexei was. He climbed back onto the couch beside him. “You did that before?”

“Nope.” Murray said with a little laugh. “That good for my first time?” Alexei nodded, having to give him the benefit of the doubt, despite the teasing. 

“Good enough to let you do it again.” Alexei turned his head to grin widely at him.

“Wow. Okay.” Murray nodded. “I see how it is. I feel like I liked it enough to definitely do it again. With some reciprocation of course.”

“Do you need-”

“No, save it for later.” Murray shook his head and reached over to pat him on the chest gently. “Save your strength for painting.”

Alexei rolled his eyes and pushed himself back into his pants, zipping them up. “You better get at _least_ a full wall done by the time lunch rolls around.” He stood and stretched, definitely _not_ for Murray’s benefit. 

“Speaking of lunch,” Murray drew his eyes away from the muscles of Alexei’s back. “What do you think about getting pizza again? It’s quick, it’s easy, and we don’t have groceries in the fridge yet.”

Alexei looked back at him and nodded, “But we need to start saving money too, it’s not always going to be there.”

“Tomorrow we can go to the store,” Murray told him. 

“I’m anxious to see what sort of selections American grocery stores have.” Alexei smiled at him. 

“Too many. But you’ll see, we can make a list of what we want tonight.” Murray leaned back on the couch. “Of course, I’m sure you won’t see a lot of things that are in Russian grocery stores, so you’ll have to adjust your tastes.”

Alexei made a face at him before retreating back to the bedroom again. His tastes were Russian and they would stay that way. 


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So updates aren't gonna be quite as frequent since I'm still settling in to the new apartment, but I'm still here and queer for this story lol Hope my time away is made up by the length of this chapter and the content. There's some good stuff in here! Happy holidays!
> 
> Oh and the bolded bits of text are English.

By the time lunch rolled around, Alexei was starting on the second coat of paint for the bedroom. When he turned around, he saw Murray leaning on the doorframe just watching him. “How long have you been there?”

“A few minutes,” Murray smiled. “I already ordered the pizza. I was just admiring you working.” 

Alexei put his paintbrush down and walked over to him with a smile. “How does it look? This is the start of the second coat. After that’s dry I’ll do the stripe, but I’ll need some masking tape or something to get it straight.”

“Nothing is straight in this house,” Murray said with a snicker. “But I think I have some masking tape you can use.”

“That was an easy joke to make, Moshy. You need to try  _ harder _ next time.” Alexei shook his head and grinned. 

“I’ll give you hard,” Murray gave him a look and a smirk before poking him in the stomach. “Come on, let’s go wait for the pizza and relax a little.” 

“Poke me in the stomach again and I might eat your finger,” Alexei warned him as they walked back to the living room.

“Worked up an appetite, hm?” Murray smiled and sat down on the couch with a sigh. Alexei nodded and looked at the work that Murray had done in the living room. He could tell that he was taking it wall at a time, so one wall was complete with two layers, while one had a layer drying.

“You did a lot.” Alexei nodded again and started looking over the furniture that was gathered in the center of the room. “I’m excited...” He looked over at Murray with a smile.

“Me too, Alyosha.” Murray gave him a soft smile as he watched him look over the living room furniture. “We’re gonna need a painting or something for the wall above the couch.”

“Do you know any artists?” Alexei asked, running his fingers over the shelves of the entertainment stand.

“Unfortunately no.” Murray said, “I think I heard Joyce’s son is good at drawing? But do we really want something like that above our couch to look at every day?”

Alexei shrugged. “Maybe it would be nice? If he’s any good, but what would he draw? What would we like in that spot?”

“Maybe a cityscape?” Murray suggested. 

“Moscow mixed with Chicago?” Alexei mused, imagining it. “That might look nice. You think he could do that?”

“Maybe...he would need a picture of Moscow and all it’s weird buildings. Probably can find a book at the library with that.” Murray nodded, although he didn’t know if the boy would be up to it, it’s not like he knew Murray or Alexei at all. 

Alexei sat on the couch beside him and leaned against him. “You should take me to the library one day so we can pick out books so I can learn English faster.”

“Children’s books?” Murray smiled. “I’m sure we can get Sesame Street on the tv here as well, it’s a children’s show, you might like it.”

Alexei shrugged. “If it’ll help with my English, I guess. Again I want to tell you I don’t particularly  _ want _ to learn English, but I know it’s a necessity.”

“Darling, if we could live out in the woods and not have to deal with society, I would speak Russian for you forever,” Murray told him. “But unfortunately we must live in society. All we can hope is that it’s as painless as possible, and in order to make it painless you need to learn English.”

“I guess it would be good to be able to go out without you having to be there and translate for me.” Alexei sighed.

“Yes, you can have friends or something. I never liked them, but you’re outgoing enough to have them,” Murray grinned at him. 

“We can invited the neighbors over,” Alexei said with a laugh then looked over at him. “Are Joyce and Hopper not your friends?”

“Just because they came to me for help doesn’t mean they’re my friends,” Murray pointed out. “They just knew I could help.”

“They knew you could speak Russian though.”

“No...not necessarily. It just  _ happened _ that I spoke Russian,” Murray explained as the doorbell rang for the pizza delivery. He got up and walked over to the door, while grabbing his wallet. 

Moments later Murray came back with the pizza, pulling over a box to sit it down. “Sorry no drinks. But I can go and get some later on, if you want.”

“Get me a cherry slushie and I’ll let you go now,” Alexei said, flipping over the lid. It was a different sort of pizza than what they had in Chicago, a lot thinner, but acceptable.

“You would only say that because you want to eat all the pizza yourself.” Murray shook his head and sat down beside him. “Not gonna happen.” He grabbed a slice and took a bite. “Not as good as the one in Chicago but it’s pizza.”

Alexei took a slice and tried it himself, it definitely wasn’t as sturdy as the other pizza, this one was kinda floppy the further away from the crust’s edge it was. It wasn’t too bad though, a little greasier than the other one as well, but it was still recognizably pizza: sauce, cheese, pepperoni, crust.

“I definitely need something to wash this down,” Alexei said as he bit into a second slice. They had been eating in silence up to that point, just resting. He poked at Murray’s side a second later. 

“After this slice.” Murray shook his head with a sigh. “You need to finish up the second coat in the bedroom while I’m gone though.”

“I can do that,” Alexei said as he bit into his crust. “Still need to get me the masking tape though,” he mentioned as well.

“Need need need.” Murray shook his head and took the last bite of his slice, brushing his hands together to brush away any crumbs. He turned and gave Alexei a quick peck on the lips. “I’ll be back, don’t answer the door for strangers,” he said as he got up.

“Okay, love you.” Alexei said as he chewed absently on another bite of crust. Murray looked back at him and blinked. It was then Alexei realized what he just said. He just shrugged and popped the rest of the piece of crust into his mouth. “I said what I said.”

“...I love you too,” Murray said softly. “We can talk about it later.” He grabbed his keys and walked out the door, locking it behind him. 

It wasn’t like Alexei was lying, he just didn’t expect for it to slip out so soon. He definitely didn’t expect the words to slip out before  _ he realized  _ that it was true. Murray was funny, smart, and sweet, he definitely cared for Alexei, provided for him like a good alpha. Alexei was really happy to be there, not only that, but be there with Murray. It had only been a few days but Alexei had felt more safe now, more cared for than since he was little. It was strange how much things could change in just a few days. 

He closed the lid of the pizza box again and stood up to stretch. He knew he was going to be sore from the motions of painting in his shoulders tomorrow or even for the next few days. But it was worth it, this could be  _ their _ house now. 

After grabbing the pizza box and putting it in the fridge--the very empty fridge-- Alexei rinsed off his hands and got back to work in the bedroom.

He was done with the second coat of paint in the bedroom by the time Murray got back with the drinks. Alexei was starting on the small wall in the dining room when he heard the other walk in. “ **_Cherry?_ ** ” He asked and walked into the living room to receive his Slurpee. 

“Yes yes, I got you one,” Murray handed him the large slurpee and was gifted a quick kiss in thanks. “I also got us some snacks and drinks for later too.” He held up the plastic bag in his other hand. 

“I put the pizza in the fridge and started on painting the dining room wall,” Alexei told him before he paused to take a sip, wiggling in delight. 

“Good job.” Murray smiled at him. “We might actually get this done today, which was unexpected.” Alexei nodded and took another sip. 

“You just gotta finish the living room,” Alexei gave him a look before turning to return to the dining room.

“Hey, I’m working on it!” Murray followed him and went past him into the kitchen to put their drinks in the fridge. On his way back out, he said, “Just because I’m not as fast as you, doesn’t mean I’m not working.”

“Uh huh. I’ll come help you when I’m done with this.” Alexei gave Murray a smile as the other passed him on his way back to the living room.

“You’re horrible,” Murray told him as he passed, then grumbled something in English. Alexei just took a sip of his slurpee with a smile. 

Once Alexei was done with the dining room wall, he grabbed his slurpee and went in to check on how the paint was drying in the bedroom, giving Murray a smile as he walked through the living room. Murray was wiggling along to the music a little as he painted, it was cute. The paint in the bedroom was drying fast, although not quite dry enough that Alexei could still start to set up what he needed to paint on the stripe on the top of the wall. 

He sat down on the couch in the living room and watched Murray work. Murray turned to him, “I thought you were going to help me?”

“I think I like watching you more,” Alexei smiled and sipped his slurpee again. “Continue.”

“We should put the curtains up before I give you a show, you’re the only one who wants to see what I’m offering,” Murray pointed out. 

“You don’t want the neighbors to see?” Alexei asked, lighty chewing on the end of his straw. “You didn’t mind when you were sucking me off earlier.”

“We weren’t standing up, it was more hidden.” Murray shook his head and went back to painting. “Don’t worry, you weren’t  _ exposed _ . Besides, you’re prettier to look at than I am.”

Alexei rolled his eyes, of course Murray would think that. “Why would you want anyone else to look at me?” 

Murray paused, his brush still on the wall, “You know? That’s true. I don’t want anyone else looking at you.” He glanced behind him at Alexei, who was watching him with interest. 

“Well alpha, I think you only have a right to say that after you’ve claimed me,” Alexei grinned. “Not tonight though, I want everything in order with the house before that happens.” 

Murray nodded and turned back to continue painting. “So we don’t have to worry about anything.”

“Exactly. So we better get busy because I don’t want to wait much longer.” Alexei took a big gulp of his slurpee before sitting it on the ground by the couch and standing up. “Ooh cold!” He winced through the pain.

“Press your thumb on the roof of your mouth.”

“What?” 

“Thumb, roof of your mouth, hold it there.” Murray told him again, turning to look at him. Alexei did what he said and soon his pain dissipated. “See? The roof of your mouth gets too cold so you put your thumb there to warm it back up, brain freeze gone.”

“That’s...amazing.” Alexei nodded and looked down into his cup. “How did you learn that?”

“From a teacher in high school actually,” Murray shrugged, putting his paintbrush down and turning to him. “They were one of those ‘change your perception on life’ kinda teachers, for me at least.”

“What perception did they change?” Alexei asked curiously. 

“Just of life? Truth. Pursuing truth. She made me want to be a journalist,” Murray said softly. 

“And just look where it got you,” Alexei said with a smile. 

“I wouldn’t change anything.” 

“You’re too sweet, no one is going to believe me when I tell them how sweet you really are.” Alexei sighed and shook his head. He was just going to have to bear the burden of that knowledge alone.

“That’s exactly what I intended. Everyone thinks I’m a bitter old man. And that’s true, mostly.” Murray grinned at him. “Only you know the full truth.”

“I guess that’s fair, being your omega and all,” Alexei walked over to him with a smile. 

Murray put his hands up defensively, “I don’t know what you’re thinking of doing with that smile on your face.”

“Me? Why would you think I would do something?” Alexei shook his head and took Murray’s hands in his own, weaving their fingers together and stepping close. “I just want to kiss my alpha.” He moved to kiss Murray softly. “I wasn’t planning on doing anything,” he told him innocently.

“Good-”

“But now that you said something.” Alexei pressed Murray’s back against the wall and the wet paint. He was wearing his white tank top, so he could feel the cold of the paint through the thin material.

Murray gasped, looking at him in astonishment. “You...are gonna get a spanking.” Alexei ran from the room, giggling as Murray gave chase. 

Of course he caught him in the bedroom, there was no where else to run. Alexei stood giggling in the middle of the room. Murray stood in the doorway, his hands against the doorframe on either side of him.

“You’re not gonna spank me.” Alexei tried to reason with him. 

“Why shouldn’t I?” Murray advanced on him step by step.

“Because you love me?” Alexei tried.

“Maybe I’m doing this  _ because  _ I love you,” Murray told him with a grin. 

“...Oh, well then...carry on,” Alexei said and squeaked when Murray wrapped his arms around him. 

“Gotcha.” Murray grinned as he squeezed him. 

Alexei just smiled and kissed him softly. “You should take off that shirt, not only because it has paint on it.” 

Murray shook his head and gave him another quick kiss before moving away to do just that.

“What do you think of me growing a beard too?” Alexei asked, stroking his chin. 

Murray gave him a look. “Can you even grow a beard? Have you even shaved the last couple of days? You’re jaw is smooth baby...”

Alexei made a face. “It’s a curse.” Apparently a beard wasn’t in his future, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy Murray’s.

“It’s genetics,” Murray said going back to wrap his arms around him once again. “Besides, it would never be as amazing as my beard.”

“Very true, your beard is magnificent.” Alexei nuzzled their noses together with a smile. “So about that spanking…”

Murray searched his face for a second. “Do you...really want to do that? I’m game if you are but it’s not...we don’t  _ have _ to.”

“I want to,” Alexei told him softy. “I uh...must be close to my heat because I usually don’t...I mean, you make me want to do a lot of things, and I’ve been on my suppressants a long time so maybe...” He tried to explain what the situation was. Was he just like this? Or was this just him coming off of his suppressants, getting closer to his heat for the first time in so long? Or was it just how Murray made him feel?

“It’s okay. I’ll take care of you, whatever you need.” Murray gave him a soft smile and leaned in to kiss him gently. 

“You’re wonderful.”

“I know.” Murray grinned at him and pulled away, taking his hand and leading him out of the room.

“Fine then, I take it back.” Alexei rolled his eyes as he followed him. “Where are we going to do this?”

“I was thinking of grabbing a chair and doing it in the dining room? That’s at least a little hidden,” Murray said as they walked through the living room. He grabbed a dining room chair as they passed. “I can’t believe you  _ actually _ want to be punished.”

Alexei grinned. “But is it  _ really _ punishment if I’ll like it?”

“Have you done this before?” Murray asked him, raising his eyebrow at him as he sat the chair against the wall. He sat down in it and looked up at Alexei. “Then how do you know if you’ll like it?”

“Just a feeling.” 

“Pants down.” Murray gestured to Alexei’s jeans and Alexei made a show of slowly unzipping them and pushing them down. He turned around so that his ass was right in front of him as he leaned down to pull off his shoes and his pants.

Murray grabbed his hips and pulled him down onto his lap. “Taking too long.” He wrapped his arms around Alexei’s waist. 

“I was just trying to give you a show.” Alexei grinned before wiggling on his lap to maneuver across his lap.

“Oh you’re gonna give me a show,” Murray said, wrapping an arm over the small of Alexei’s back to hold him on his lap. Alexei wiggled again and Murray gave him a little warning smack. “Stop moving. Let’s see how many you can take...”

The first real smack had Alexei jolt a little in his lap. He wrapped his arm around the front leg of the chair to secure himself. “One.”

“Ah this would be a good way to learn English numbers.  **_One,_ ** ” Murray corrected him. 

“ **_One_ ** **,** ” Alexei said with a sigh. Of course Murray had to turn this into a learning opportunity.

“Good.” Alexei could hear the smile in Murray’s voice. “ **Two.** ” Another spank that made Alexei gasp.

“ **_Two._ ** ”

By the time they got to eight and nine, Alexei was tearing up and it was getting progressively harder to hold his head up. He whined when Murray spanked him again, he could tell the other was mostly hard, and so was he. 

“ **_Ten_ ** **.** ” Murray smiled. “Your ass is so red. Do you want some more?” He lightly moved his fingers over the blush of Alexei’s ass, making him shiver at the sensation. “What number was that? I wanna hear you say it, Alyosha.”

“ **_T-ten,_ ** ” Alexei mumbled. Could he take a few more? Probably? Would he absolutely wreck him in the process? Definitely.

“How many more?” Murray asked him softly.

“...Five…. **_uh five?_ ** ” Alexei stuttered.

“Five? Glutton for punishment, aren’t we?” Murray smiled and patted his ass gently. “Ready?”

“Just-” Smack. Alexei let out a whine and dropped his head. 

“Hmm, maybe we should do this more often.” Murray ran his hand up the middle of Alexei’s back soothingly. “You doing okay baby?”

“More...please.” For some reason Alexei liked it, it was like...Murray was taking care of him. 

“Alright, I’m gonna do the last four all at once. You don’t have to count.” Murray told him softly. 

“Please daddy.” That...that just slipped out and it definitely made Murray pause for a second. 

“We can discuss that later,” Murray said after processing what Alexei had just said. He gave his ass cheeks a few more smacks, one to each side, and then two across both. “Now...”

Alexei took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He could feel Murray was also hard under him, apparently it effected both of them. He pushed himself back up again to look back at Murray, who was looking at him, waiting to see what he would do or say next. 

He pushed himself up even more, stepping onto the ground between Murray’s legs, and pivoted so that he could pull Murray into a deep kiss. “I love you...” Alexei said softly before dropping to his knees.

“I love you too, you don’t have to-” but Alexei was already pulling Murray out of his pants. With no hesitation he sucked the head of Murray’s cock into his mouth. Murray tilted his head back and stringed a few curse words together in English.

Alexei smiled around his cock and sucked more of it in his mouth, sucking on it lightly. Murray’s hands came down to tangle his fingers in Alexei’s curls as he started bobbing his head.

“Love your curls….fuck, your mouth is like a damn Hoover,” Murray groaned, gripping Alexei’s hair tight. Alexei moaned and reached down to start stroking himself off. He liked having Murray in his mouth like that, tasting him, giving him pleasure. “Fuck...you’re getting off on this too...” Murray said with a breathy laugh. 

Alexei pulled off of his cock and smiled up at him. “I like it…” He winked at him before sucking him back down, trying to take as much as he could into his mouth, which was surprisingly a little bit more than half.

“Oh fuck.” Murray groaned as he watched him. “Wait wait wait,” he said and Alexei looked up at him, ready to pull off before Murray moved to carefully take off Alexei’s glasses and put them on the half wall beside them. “Okay.”

Alexei pulled off for a moment. “I need those to see.” He grinned, the skin at the corners of his eyes crinkling in delight.

“There’s nothing you need to see while you’re down there.” Murray shook his head and pressed a hand to the back of Alexei’s head to push him gently back down. He let him push his head a little bit farther down his cock than was comfortable, so he could almost feel it in his throat.

Alexei moaned around his cock and let Murray guide his head up and down on his length. Letting go like that felt good, he knew that Murray would never hurt him or push too far, he trusted him. 

The volume of Murray’s groans increased and he pulled out just until the head was inside Alexei’s mouth to come hard onto his tongue. With frantic strokes Alexei came not soon after. He rested his forehead against Murray’s inner thigh as they both caught their breath. 

After a few minutes Murray told him, “I hate to say this but, I think I’ve come more than I have in a month.”

Alexei smiled and tilted his head to look up at him. “You’re welcome.”


	24. Chapter 24

Alexei napped on the couch while Murray finished up painting the living room. He was still waiting on that masking tape that Murray assured him that he would get for him. He was lightly shook awake and he blinked up at Murray.

“You’re so cute,” Murray said with a soft smile and Alexei blinked up at him before grabbing his glasses and putting them on. 

“You done?” Alexei asked and stretched while he looked up at him. 

“Yep, all done. And I was thinking that we just...forget about the stripe in the bedroom.” 

“Lazy American.” Alexei scoffed. “You just don’t want to go down to the basement and get the masking tape.”

“Well-”

“It’ll take like half an hour and you don’t even have to do anything. I want our bedroom to be nice.” Alexei sat up. “Go get the masking tape, or I’ll call you a coward for the rest of the night.”

Murray gave him a look, shaking his head before walking over to the door to the basement with a sigh. He gave one last look at Alexei before opening the door.

“Don’t worry, I’ll come save you if you need it.” Alexei grinned as he heard Murray scoff at that. A few moments later Murray was racing up the steps, slowing down at the top as if Alexei didn’t already hear the mad dash he made up. “See you did it!”

Murray scowled and tossed him the masking tape roll, “You’re horrible and I want a divorce.”

Alexei gasped dramatically at him then smiled. “Nope, you’re stuck with me for life.” He stood up and grabbed the step-ladder as he passed it on his way to the bedroom. Murray followed him, to watch of course.

“I guess I can live with that,” Murray mentioned as they walked into the bedroom. “You’re not so bad, for a Russian.” Alexei turned and gave him a look.

Alexei set up the ladder and pulled the tape to start making the stripe across the top of the wall. “How wide?” He looked at Murray from over his shoulder. 

“Eh, half a foot?” Murray shrugged. “We’ll see what that looks like.” Alexei nodded and started taping up the wall. “I think that should work...” he nodded after seeing what the six inch section would look like. “Make sure to put it on straight,” he reminded him. 

“I’m going to make one spot uneven, just for you,” Alexei murmured as he concentrated on placing the tape as even as possible. 

“I’m going to start rearranging the furniture so it’ll be easier later on,” Murray mentioned as he started to walk out of the bedroom again. As much as he’d like to stay and watch Alexei work, if they wanted to sleep in the bed tonight, they would have to do something to prepare to move the furniture around in the other room.

While he was taping up the wall, moving the ladder every few feet, Alexei had time to think about the spare bedroom and it’s possibilities. Of course it could act as a guest bedroom, even though there was no one to really invite over, it wasn’t like Alexei could invite his family, and Murray didn’t seem too happy with his mother being too involved with things. Then there was always the obvious. A nursery. Alexei chewed his bottom lip at that thought. He never entertained the idea in the past, of course he never thought he would have an alpha that he would be happy to entertain the idea  _ with _ . It was a strange feeling, to be comfortable enough, to be happy enough to even  _ think  _ of bringing another life into this world. What would Murray say about that, they weren’t even bonded yet! Even still, the idea of a child made Alexei nervous as well, he and Murray weren’t exactly the most sociable people, they could even be described as grating at times. Were they a good fit for being parents? How much would a child change them? Maybe he just wouldn’t bring it up. That might be the best and worst idea. 

Once he was done taping the section up, he stepped back to check that it was all the same size around the room and the lines were straight. It wouldn’t take much to paint it all in. “What are we doing for dinner?” Alexei called out softly, knowing that Murray was in the other bedroom. 

“American delicacy,” Murray answered. “Cold pizza.” Alexei made a face, it didn’t sound appetizing to him, but they did have left over pizza. 

He went over to open the small can of darker colored paint and started to prep his brushes. “Do you wanna help me paint this? We can have it done faster that way?”

“Working with the furniture, you paint it,” was Murray’s response. At least after this paint job they could be done for a while, and since it was such a dark color, it might only need one coat.

Maybe they could move the bed in here today, that would be nice. Although Alexei was sure they would both be too tired to actually do anything. The thought of sleeping in their own bed, in their own room of their own house was something that was deeply satisfying to him. He never thought he would have something like this, it almost seemed like a dream or something. Or maybe he died, maybe Gregori  _ did _ shoot and kill him that night, and this was his heaven. Wouldn’t that mean that Murray was dead too? And Joyce? He hoped not. 

Murray came back and leaned up against the door frame. “Okay, I did my heavy lifting for the day.” Alexei turned and grinned at him. “Everything should be ready to move in here, after we rest.”

Alexei nodded. “Rest, move some furniture, eat and then maybe we can shower?” He grinned at him. 

“Together?”

“I’ve heard it saves water.” Alexei shrugged, it probably wasted the same, if not more water, considering what he had planned.

“You’re smart enough to know that’s a lie. But I like your thinking.” Murray grinned at him. “The stripe looks good, I’m glad we did it. You think it’s gonna need another coat? It’s pretty dark already...”

Alexei jumped down from the ladder to look at the finished paint job. “We’ll see when it dries, it’s darker when it’s wet.”

Murray nodded. “I’m gonna grab the box with the bed frame so we can start assembling it in here.” 

“Yeah, give me a second and I’ll help you,” Alexei said as he put his paintbrush back in the tray and went to fold up the ladder. When he stepped into the doorway of the guest bedroom, Murray was already having trouble pushing the large box on the carpet. “I told you I’d help.” He shook his head and went to help him slide the heavy box on the carpet. They could have probably picked it up between the two of them, but they were both tired and sliding it would get it where it needed to go just as well.

They pushed it to the center of the master bedroom and carefully laid it down flat on the floor. Murray sat down beside the box with a groan. “Can you go get the screwdriver baby, it’s in the living room?” He pouted up at Alexei.

Alexei let out a sigh. “Only for you,” he said as he went to go grab the screwdriver so they could start putting the piece together. Once he got back into the room, Alexei sat down on the other side of the box and handed Murray the screwdriver. 

“Thanks, you’re a doll.” Murray winked at him.

Alexei smiled and looked away, his cheeks coloring slightly. “What’s gotten into you?”

Murray shrugged as he started slicing open the tape on the box with the head of the screwdriver. “Nothing, just...happy its starting to come together.”

Alexei looked back at him and grinned. “Me too. A few days ago this wouldn’t have even been a thought in my mind.”

“You had more important things to worry about.”

“This is important,” Alexei said softly. “You’re important to me. All of this is important to me.”

“It wasn’t before, because you didn’t know you could have it.” Murray nodded. “You know, I still want you to do what you want to, I don’t want to confine you to be a house omega. I don’t know if there are any  _ other _ secret labs around here but, you don’t have to settle into an omega stereotype...unless that’s what you really want to do.” 

“I’m an electrical engineer, I’m sure I can find something that I can do.  _ Or _ we could make our own secret lab in the basement.” Alexei grinned. 

“Very true, that is definitely a possibility that I didn’t foresee. You can take the Russian scientist out of the creepy underground lab, but you can never take the creepy underground lab out of the Russian scientist,” Murray said as he started to pull things out of the box.

Alexei narrowed his eyes. “I’m not sure that makes sense, but in a way it does.” He started to pull the pieces of wood out of the plastic that they came in. They were heavy duty pieces, once they had it assembled it would be a nice piece of furniture and a great support for the bed.

Murray took out the instruction booklet and flipped to the first page. “This would be a lot easier if you could read English.”

“It’s okay, it’ll be a good relationship test.” Alexei grinned at him as he continued to set the pieces out on the floor. 

“These things break relationships,” Murray said ominously.

“Apparently so does furniture shopping, but we got through that just fine. And it’s a bed frame, we can’t fuck it up too bad.” Or at least Alexei didn’t think they could. 

Murray groaned and laid back on the floor. Of course Alexei took that opportunity to slowly run his gaze up Murray’s body. “What?” Murray asked with a hint of a smile around the corners of his mouth.

“Just...admiring.”


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just re-read through this whole thing and OH MY GOD WHY ARE THERE SO MANY TYPOS? I'm so sorry for all the typos, this obviously isn't beta read. Now I'm not saying that from this chapter on there won't be any more typos...just know that if you see one that I've missed I'm sorry and it will shame future me when I go for another re-read.
> 
> Also thanks for all the kind comments. You guys are the best.

“I can’t believe we put it together without any issues,” Murray said as he looked over the bed frame. Alexei was picking up all the bits of trash that came from it and stuffing it in the big box. “There’s always issues with these things…”

“Babe...” Alexei gave him a look and pushed the trash box towards the wall. “Should we get the bed now or are you worried that it’s gonna fall apart if you’re not looking at it?” Murray gave him a look. 

“I’m just surprised,” Murray said as he followed Alexei out of the room. “Usually it’s a pain in the ass to put those things together.”

“Do I need to remind you that I have a doctorate? In engineering?” Alexei shook his head and went to the far side of the bed that was propped up against the wall. 

“ _ Electrical _ engineering.” Murray scoffed and took the other side of the bed. They started sliding it out of the room. 

“Still, I know how things work, how they fit together,” Alexei explained. “And I can definitely follow instructions on how to put a piece of furniture together, do you have no faith in me at all?”

“No I do, I just...I’m just surprised there wasn’t something missing, there’s always a part missing on things like that” Murray shrugged as they propped the bed up against the wall in the bedroom and started taking off the plastic.

“Do things often go wrong for you? No, don’t answer that.” Alexei shook his head. They went to push the boxsprings into the room as well, pushing it onto the bed frame easily. The mattress was the heavier part but they managed to get it lined up with the box spring on the bed frame without too much trouble. 

“I’ll go get the sheets and we can make it,” Murray said, his breathing a little labored.

Alexei flopped down on the bare bed. He couldn’t wait until they could relax in it and sleep, that was all they were going to do in bed tonight, then maybe later they could get to the fun stuff. 

“Look at you, falling down on the job. And you call me a lazy American,” Murray tutted as he tossed the comforter and bed sheets packages beside Alexei.

“Just resting, besides I need to get into the American mindset.” Alexei sat up and grabbed the smaller package of bedsheets. “Don’t forget the pillows,” he said as he unzipped the sheet set.

“Right, right.” Murray left again to grab the pillows, which he threw at Alexei with a grin. 

“Hey, rude!” Alexei grinned and tossed a pillow back to him. “I guess you don’t want me helping making the bed.”

“You better help or you’re sleeping on the couch tonight.” Murray gave him a look and went over to start taking the sheets and things out of the bag. “Wow, these are nice....and soft,” he mentioned as he felt the sheets between his fingers. Alexei reached out and felt the sheets as well, they were very soft and silky.

“Speaking of nice and soft, we need to get some heat sheets too.” Alexei reminded him. “When the time comes, preferably before.”

“We’ll get all of that, don’t worry that cute curly head of yours.”

Making the bed was a lot easier with two people and soon they were putting the pillows in place. It was nice to look at while it was made but both men knew that it wouldn’t last like that for long. Neither man was one to make their bed everyday.

“Can’t wait to mess it up,” Murray said as he grinned at him. 

Alexei grinned back at him. “Food. And then shower.”

“Yeah yeah, come on you.” Murray gently took Alexei’s hand and pulled him out of the bedroom.

“Cold pizza doesn’t sound too appetizing,” Alexei said, remembering what Murray said before as they walked into the kitchen.

“Shh, just try it.” Murray opened the fridge to take the pizza box out, putting it on the counter and flipping it open. He took a slice out and handed it to Alexei. “Try it.” 

Alexei looked at the cold slice of pizza before taking a small bite. It wasn’t bad actually.

“See?” Murray smiled at him and grabbed a slice for himself. “It makes a good breakfast too.” Alexei wasn’t sure about breakfast, Americans were weird, but it was passable for a quick meal.

While they ate, leaning up against the kitchen counter, Alexei’s mind wandered. It wandered to Murray, sitting alone in his bunker, eating cold pizza. He didn’t like it, it was a sad image, and he was glad that Murray had him now. They both weren’t alone.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Murray asked softly, watching him. 

“Just thinking about you.” Alexei shrugged and started on the crust of the pizza. “Thinking about you being lonely before me.”

“Oh.” Murray paused for a second. “I was doing fine you know, on my own?”

“So was I...but we’re much better together, don’t you think?” Alexei gave him a little smile.

Murray smiled at him. “Yeah. I guess I can say things are better because of you.”

“Now you have someone to eat cold pizza with.” Alexei moved to bump shoulders with Murray. “Now we’re not lonely...”

Murray tossed his crust back into the pizza box and pulled Alexei in for a soft kiss. “You are...amazing, you know that?” Alexei grinned at him. “I think you know that.” Murray rolled his eyes and grabbed another slice.

“The fact that you don’t eat your crust is a crime,” Alexei mentioned as he grabbed Murray’s discarded crust.

“You can be the designated crust eater.” Murray took a bite of his new slice of pizza and Alexei shook his head. Designated crust eater…

They finished a few more slices each, Alexei eating Murray’s crust, and effectively finishing off the pizza. Murray crowded Alexei against the counter to steal a few kisses from him, which Alexei happily gave. 

“Mm, shower,” Alexei said against Murray’s lips. “Shower.”

“Just a second.” Murray kissed him again, slower this time. Alexei decided to humor him, especially since he got something good out of it too.

They stood there kissing for another minute, their bodies pressed up against each other, before Alexei pulled away again. “We can kiss in the shower you know...”

“Doesn’t do much for saving water but point taken.” Murray grinned and turned to head out of the kitchen and to the shower. 

While Murray was starting up the water, Alexei stripped off his clothes eagerly. They had gotten a lot done today and they definitely deserved some time to relax after all the hard work. Murray pulled the door on the shower ajar and turned to Alexei. He paused briefly to admire the other before stripping his clothes off as well. 

They both sat their glasses on the counter and stepped into the shower, Murray close behind Alexei. Alexei didn’t know what the other was thinking but he was planning to do a lot more than kiss while they were in there. 

He sighed and let the hot water wash over him. Hopefully they wouldn’t be too sore tomorrow from painting. Alexei wiped the water from his eyes so he could look at Murray and shuffle to the side to trade places with him so that the other could get under the spray as well. 

Murray groaned softly when the water first hit his back. “Give me five minutes under here and I’ll be good.” He closed his eyes and tilted his head back a little. 

Alexei couldn’t help but reach out and lightly run his fingertips down Murray’s chest and through his chest hair. He loved how hairy his mate was. He never thought that would be a turn on but he also never thought he would be in this situation either. The last few weeks had been turning everything that Alexei knew about the world and himself on it’s head. 

Murray grinned and peeked open his eyes a little, squinting under the water spray. “Now I see why you wanted to take a shower so badly.”

“Hm, you wouldn’t take the hint. You just wanted to kiss me, while we still had clothes on. You should listen to me more.” Alexei grinned at him. “Obviously my idea was better.”

“I concede,” Murray sighed. “You’re right. Being naked and kissing is a lot better.” He stepped closer to Alexei, now out of the spray slightly but pressed up against the other. “Unless there’s more you were planning on doing.”

“Maybe.” Alexei glanced away. “But let’s just kiss first and see where that leads.” He looked back at him with cocky grin. 

“Uh huh, I think you have an idea where it’ll lead.” Murray wrapped his arms around Alexei’s waist. 

“I might have a  _ preference  _ of where things will lead, but you could surprise me,” Alexei said with a smile. 

“I think we have similar ideas, no surprises there” Murray asked him, moving his hands down to lightly cup Alexei’s ass.

“I guess that’s why we fit together so well.” Alexei wrapped his arms around Murray’s shoulders and tilted his head up a little for a kiss. Then another. And another. Soon Murray was pressing Alexei back against the tile wall of the shower and pushing their bodies together. 

Alexei let out a soft moan and pushed his hips against Murray’s, their cocks rubbing together deliciously. Murray looked down between them and licked his lips. “That’s such a nice sight.” And just for effect, he thrust against Alexei with a groan. 

“Keep doing that...” Alexei breathed out. Murray grinned and pressed another deep kiss to Alexei’s lips and started up a rhythm that had them both groaning. 

“You feel so good,” Murray moaned against Alexei’s lips. Alexei squeezed Murray’s upper half tight to him and buried his face in the crook of the other’s neck, breathing in his scent. “Fuck...” Murray panted against his ear. “When...when I claim you...I want you to bite me too.”

Alexei moaned at that. Usually alphas didn’t think that was an option, it wasn’t exactly commonplace for alphas to be marked with a claiming bite as well. It just showed Alexei that Murray truly thought they were equals. He didn’t think that Murray would just say something like that in the heat of the moment. 

“Yes.” Alexei moved to look at him. “I want that too.” Murray gave him a half second grin before kissing him passionately again. With a few more hard thrusts against him Murray was coming with a groan. 

He kissed Alexei for another few seconds as he pulled away, breathing hard. Murray reached between them and started to jerk Alexei off quick and dirty. “Come for me baby. Let me watch you.”

Alexei’s leaned his head back against the blue tiles and moaned loud. He closed his eyes and let himself feel the wave as it hit him. “Fuck.” He opened his eyes a moment later to see Murray licking his come off his fingers. Alexei let out a noise. 

“You taste good, Alyosha.” Murray grinned at him.

“And you...are supposed to have a bad back, if I recall.” Alexei gave him a look and put his leg down from its place on Murray’s hip. “You did that pretty well for someone with a bad back...”

“Hmm, are you a doctor?” Murray asked and just as Alexei was about to open his mouth to inform him, yet again, of his doctorate, Murray added, “of medicine? I don’t think so.” He moved away from him.

Alexei shook his head and pushed himself off of the wall. “Either way, I’m glad your  _ bad back _ that prevented you from working and heavy lifting previously, didn’t effect your thrusting capabilities.” He grinned and moved back into Murray’s arms for another kiss. “We really  _ are _ wasting water now.”

“You’re the one who suggested we shower together, mister doctorate.” 

They settled against each other in the bed, snuggling down in the fresh blankets. “Those were very nice towels,” Alexei mentioned as he wrapped an arm around Murray’s waist and faced him.

“They were. I bet they’re not gonna be so fluffy after washing them though. But the first time is always the best.” Murray nodded. 

“Are you speaking from experience?”

“With the towels?” Murray turned to look at him. “Oh you mean the double meaning I put in there.” He grinned. “I think sex is great if you have the right partner.” Alexei let out a noise of agreement and snuggled against him. 

They were silent for a moment, just soaking in each other’s presence before Murray spoke again. “So, you love me.”

“I do.” Alexei hoped this wasn’t going to be a whole thing, but he had his suspicions that Murray was going to try and pick it apart.

“...but we’ve only known each other for a few days, isn’t that Stockholm Syndrome or something?” 

Alexei pushed himself up on his elbow to look down at him. “You said it back.”

Murray shrugged. “Yes...well-”

“So its okay for you to say it but not me?” Alexei raised his eyebrow at that, giving Murray a look. 

“I-”

He pushed himself over Murray so that the other had to look up at him. “This is you thinking you’re unlovable again, isn’t it? How many times do I have to tell you that you’re sweet, and amazing and  _ good _ and I want you. Forever.” Alexei searched Murray’s face for a second. “Say it.”

Murray folded, sighing. “Forever.” Alexei grinned, getting what he wanted and leaned down to give Murray a soft, loving kiss. 

“Good. Now ,I love you, get used to it.” Alexei turned to settle back against the other’s side. 

“Okay…” Murray nodded, conceding. After another second of silence he spoke again, “Next we need to talk about that daddy comment…”

“We’re not discussing that.”


	26. Chapter 26

Alexei shuffled into the kitchen with a yawn. “Why do you always get up so early? You know you can sleep in?”

“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” Murray smiled at him and started preparing the other’s coffee. 

“Yeah and how is that working out for you?” Alexei squinted at him.

“Two outta three ain’t bad,” Murray said as he handed the other his coffee.

“Should I even try and guess which two?” Alexei raised his eyebrow and took a sip of the coffee. 

“Ooh, you’re saucy this morning.” Murray smiled and leaned up against the counter to look at him. “I was thinking that we go to the store and get some food today, then we can spend the rest of the day setting the rest of the furniture up.”

Alexei too another sip of coffee, it was in one of their new mugs and that made him happy for some reason. “Are we going to see Joyce again?” Whatever that store was called that she worked at, Mel…..world or something. 

“Probably not, Melvald’s is more like a general store not a grocery store.” Murray shrugged. “She gave me her phone number though, if you miss her _that_ much.” He muttered something in English before taking a sip of his own coffee. 

“We need to tell her that we’re moved in.” Alexei nodded. 

“You’re just lucky that you don’t understand her yet.” Murray pointed out. “I have to do all the heavy mental lifting here, you can just let her words pass over you.” 

“She’s not that bad.” Alexei rolled his eyes. “She’s just...excitable. She’s also not the one who ran a metal detector over me while trying to subtly check me out when we first met.” He took another sip of his coffee. 

“Hey!”  
  
“I said what I said.” Alexei shrugged and smiled into his coffee.

“...I mean, I was, can you blame me?” Murray shook his head and put his empty mug in the sink. “They just brought a hot, dirty Russian into my home, the least I could do was look.”

“I like your double use of hot.” Alexei smiled and went over to him to kiss him softly. “And I appreciate it.”

“Well I appreciate your appreciation.” Murray grinned at him.

“I appreciate you appreciating my appreciation.” Alexei kissed him again.

“I’m not going any further with this, we’ll be here all day,” Murray muttered against the other’s lips. 

“Is that really a bad thing?” Alexei pressed him up against the counter. 

“No but...we need food...you know, to survive?”

Alexei stepped back and nodded. “I concede. You win this time. I’ll go get dressed.” He put his mug on the counter and turned to walk out of the kitchen to the sound of Murray trying to suppress his laughter.

Murray walked into the bedroom right as Alexei was pulling on his khakis, he decided to roll with the pink polo for the day. Murray shook his head as he looked at him, “I don’t know how you make that look good, but you do and I hate it.”

Alexei grinned at him. “You like it.” 

“Only on you.” Murray sighed and went to grab something to wear. “If I ever thought I’d be mated to a fucking preppy geek...” He muttered with a sigh. “Teenage me would have _so_ bullied adult me.”

“Teenage me would have bullied adult you too,” Alexei said with a laugh. “Just kidding, I was too busy blowing up the chemistry lab on accident.”

Murray looked over his shoulder at him. “Regular occurrence?”

“It happened once or twice. And then a few more times on purpose.” Alexei grinned.

“You’re a menace to society.” Murray pulled on a shirt and turned. “Let’s go.” Alexei looked him over, stopping on Murray’s jean shorts and blinking. “What? I let you wear the khakis...” Maybe Alexei would just have to live with the fact that he was a khaki guy and Murray was a jean shorts kind of guy. 

Alexei nodded. “Okay, show me to the magical capitalism marketplace.” 

“It’s not that magical but I guess you’ll see for yourself.” Murray started out of the bedroom, now fully clothed. He stopped suddenly, making Alexei bump into him. “Hey, you need to make a list.”

“...That would probably be helpful.” Alexei nodded and pushed past Murray so he could go grab his notebook and a pen. “I doubt that the grocery will have a lot of Russian things...” He muttered as he sat down at the table, the dining chair still had plastic over it. 

Murray joined him. “Well, write down some Russian staples and we’ll see what we can do.” He looked over Alexei’s shoulder as he started to write. “Sour cream? That’s the first thing on your list?”

“You think they won’t have it?” Alexei asked, looking up with a concerned look on his face.

“I wouldn’t worry about that.” Murray laughed. 

After a few minutes of Alexei writing, he put down his pen and Murray quickly slid the notebook over to read the list. “Sour cream, cottage cheese, cabbage, meats, jam, honey, kasha- isn’t that just oatmeal? Potatoes, eggs, mushrooms, sorrel… we can look for that, I don’t know if I’ve seen that. Sauerkraut, not sure if I’ve seen that either but we might be able to make it. Pickles, we definitely have those. Tea, not sure if there’s a specific Russian tea but we definitely have choices here.” He looked up at Alexei. “What do you know how to cook?”

Alexei shrugged. “A few things. Like I said before, my momma taught me… We can do cabbage rolls, blini, pierogi… a few other things with those ingredients.”

Murray got up and kissed his head. “I’m anxious to try your cooking, baby. Let’s go.” 

“What about you? What’s on your list?” Alexei asked as he followed Murray to the door. 

He looked over at him and pointed to his head. “Don’t worry about me, it’s all up here. I’ll pick up things as I see them.”

They piled themselves in the van and started off. It was a nice day out, the sky was clear, the sun was shining. Alexei would have to set up that patio swing sometime soon, before the weather started to change. 

“It’s nice out, huh? It’s not always gonna be like this,” Murray glanced over at him. “It’s a good thing you’re used to the cold already….and **_tornadoes_ **.”

Alexei tilted his head. “What? I don’t know that word.”

“I don’t even know if they _have_ them in Russia.” Of course Murray didn’t know that for sure but they seemed like a North America type of thing. “They’re like… Big columns of fast swirling wind? They cause a lot of destruction depending on their size, and they’re loud too.”

Alexei made a face. “You’ll have to show me. Is it like a blizzard? Just...we’ll have to go to the library anyway, just show me then.”

“If you insist.” Murray glanced over at him again. “Hey...” he said softly, making Alexei look over at him. “...I love you.”

This of course made Alexei grin widely. “I love you too. Very much, my bear.” 

Murray sighed and rolled his eyes. “You know what? I take it back, you’re a menace.”

“You don’t like my pet names for you?” Alexei asked and reached over to put his hand on Murray’s thigh, rubbing it a little.

“You choose awful pet names, baby.” Murray shook his head. “Is that a you thing or a Russian thing?” With that Alexei scoffed and withdrew his hand, turning his head to look out the window. Murray gave a little snort at that as they turned into the parking lot of the Big Buy. 

Murray shut off the car and looked over at him. “Come on, don’t be a big baby.” He nudged Alexei’s arm. “Come on.”

Although Alexei was a little angry at him for the comments, he still wanted to see what sort of things an American grocery store had to offer so he got out of the van and walked over to where Murray was waiting. “It’s not my fault that you don’t have any appropriate pet names, _alpha_.”

Murray just gave him a look and led him through the sliding glass doors of the store. “I mean you calling me that wouldn’t be _wrong_.” He grabbed a cart and started off, only stopping to look back at Alexei who was looking in awe at the vastness of the store.

Murray couldn’t help his smile, which was completely ruining the grumpy air that he was trying emit. He wheeled the cart back over to him. “Don’t wander too far, come on.” He took Alexei’s hand and put it on the side of the cart. 

Alexei looked around as they walked over to the fresh produce section. Everything was so...American. There were so many choices and Alexei couldn’t read a single one of them. He wasn’t paying attention and knocked into Murray’s side. “Oh, sorry. You know, I didn’t put borscht on the list just for you.”

“I supposed I should thank you then. I think only _actual_ Russians like borscht.” Murray muttered as he looked over the carrots and celery. 

“And people who like beets,” Alexei shrugged. “I hated it as a kid but it grew on me. Why are you looking at the carrots so intensely?”

“I’m just...” He glanced over at him. “Wondering if now is the time to get healthy, considering now I actually have someone I need to look good for...” Murray’s hand went to his gut. He _was_ a little pudgy, he always had been.

“I like you the way you are.” Alexei poked his side. “I like this. You’re my bear, remember? What’s the point of a skinny bear?” Murray gave him a look. “It’s true,” he said as he reached over for a small bundle of celery, “and we do need celery.”

“So, uh, should I be worried about you around Hopper?” Murray asked him as they continued through the produce. 

“What? Why?” Alexei asked, looking at a head of cabbage. 

“Because he’s...big and hairy,” Murray explained. “I’m glad no one else can understand us right now...”

“No, Hopper is...” Alexei grimaced. “Hopper reminds me of alphas in Russia. Violent.” He shook his head. “I don’t like that. I’m scared for Joyce if they get together….”

“He has his issues. I don’t think he would hit his omega though. I don’t think he’s that sort of man,” Murray said softly. “But, if it’s any consolation, I’m a lover not a fighter.”

Alexei let out a little giggle. “I know that.” He set the head of cabbage in the basket of the cart. “That’s a good way to describe you. What am I?”

“You are 100 percent brat, that’s what you are. You know you’ll have to live with me after all this cabbage.” Murray looked at Alexei who was grabbing a half head of cabbage. 

“One is for cabbage rolls and the other is for sauerkraut.” Alexei shrugged and put the half head in by the first. “We can make a lot of cabbage rolls and freeze them. Besides you can always sleep on the couch.” He grinned.

“Or you can sleep on the couch.” Murray pushed the cart away from the cabbage. 

“You would put your omega out in the cold like that? I thought you were a lover?” Alexei quickly followed him past the broccoli and green beans. 

“You may _want_ to be on the couch in those cases.” Murray shrugged. “But it’s a comfortable couch at least.” He patted a five pound bag of potatoes. “Here, put this under the cart.” Alexei made a face but did as he was told, it wasn’t even that heavy to be honest, he probably just wanted to see Alexei bend over. The pervert. 

Murray looked at the list. “We _might_ find some dried sorrel in the seasoning section. Would that do?” Alexei thought for a second before shaking his head, they needed fresh. “Well that might be one we have to do without. The mushrooms are over there.” He started pushing the cart towards a small display for mushrooms were. “White or _portobello_ ? I think the _portobello_ mushrooms are tastier.” 

Alexei walked up beside him and looked at the selection. “Where are the rest of them?”

“That’s what you get.” Murray picked up a shrink-wrapped pack of portobello. “What?”

Alexei had a hand up to his mouth, looking at the sad display and shaking his head. “I don’t know if I can do this….”

“Do what? We can get both kinds.” Murray picked up a pack of the white mushrooms as well and put them both in the top of the cart. 

“That’s why I don’t know if I can do this. Two kinds? _Only two_?” Alexei shook his head again. 

“Sorry baby. That’s Indiana for you.” Murray shrugged. “Maybe...we can ask around, there are farmers here, they might know where to find some. Or maybe there’s a better selection in the city...”

Alexei sniffed and nodded, taking his hand away from his face and bracing himself on the cart. “Yeah, I’ll...try and work around it.” He grabbed another portobello mushroom pack and put it in the cart with the others. 

“Okay, that’s a lot of mushrooms but I’m not going to question it,” Murray said softly. “Since it’s obviously a very sensitive matter to you.”

“It’s okay, we can store some for the winter.” Alexei nodded. 

“Do...Russians hibernate or something?” Murray asked as the walked on. “Just...you’re talking about saving a lot of food, I don’t know if you’ve seen how small the freezer really is...”

“You’re the bear, don’t you hibernate?” Alexei looked back at him and grinned. 

Murray opened his mouth for a second before shutting it and nodding. “You got me there.” They started walking again. “You know I’m not really a _bear_ by definition...you know what I mean?”

“I know what you mean.” Alexei grinned at him and moved to walk beside Murray. “You’re bear enough for me and that’s all that matters, yeah?”

“You’re too sweet, you’re gonna give me a cavity.” 

“Well, you did say we have government healthcare now, whatever that means.” Alexei shrugged. 

“It means the government pays for our health expenses, like doctors visits,” Murray explained. 

Alexei gave him a strange look. “Don’t they usually?” Murray just made a strangled noise and continued to push the cart. “Don’t they?”

Instead of trying to explain to Alexei how the American healthcare system worked, he pushed the cart to the meats and dairy section. He was just about to ask Alexei what type of meat worked in cabbage rolls when he heard his name. Murray turned around to see Joyce with a cart and child in tow. 

Alexei grinned at Joyce as she approached. Now they wouldn’t have to call her, or rather he wouldn’t have to remind Murray to call her.

Joyce said something to him that he couldn’t understand, of course, but then motioned to his clothes and gave him a thumbs up. Obviously she was saying that he looked great, which of course he did: he was freshly showered, had on clean clothes, hadn’t been dragged miles in handcuffs by an alpha buffoon, and didn’t fear for his life. And he was happy. 

She then started to talk to Murray and Alexei glanced over at the boy, who was peering up at him. He could remember that he was one of the kids at the mall that night, Alexei still needed to get some answers for why there were kids involved but maybe that would be later. Alexei looked down into the cooler at the meats available, just so he wasn’t staring at this random kid awkwardly.

In Russia, Alexei often went to the butcher’s with his father to get a month’s worth of meat. Of course the cut of meat they got was a lot rougher than what was in the cooler in America that he was seeing. Maybe there was somewhere where they could get meat wholesale…

He heard Murray sigh beside him and Alexei turned to see what was going on. Murray leaned over to him a little. “She wants us to come to a **_barbecue_** on Saturday.” Alexei must have given him a questioning look because Murray then explained. “It’s where you grill hamburgers and hotdogs outside and people eat outside and socialize in the blistering heat.” 

Alexei smiled and nodded at Joyce then turned back to Murray. “We should bring something. Ask her what sort of food we should bring.” Murray let out a sigh, giving him a look before turning back to her to relay the message. Joyce started to shake her head and Alexei told Murray, “Insist. What can we bring? What’s good at one of these things?”

“Well...you said Russians have good coleslaw, you could make that.” Murray suggested with a shrug. “I’m not sure the kids would eat it but, I’ll tell her.” He turned back to Joyce to tell her that Alexei was insisting on bringing something.

Joyce started talking to Alexei and he could only assume that she was telling him how wonderful he was and was looking forward to eating _real_ coleslaw. Alexei looked over to Murray for a translation. “She says that she’s looking forward to Saturday. Make sure to make enough for everyone, all the kids are gonna be there. Wonderful.” He could tell Murray was less than enthusiastic about a social gathering but Alexei knew that he would secretly enjoy it.

They said their goodbyes and went their separate ways, or rather Joyce left and Murray and Alexei stayed in the meat section. “It’ll be fun,” Alexei told him as soon as she left. “We need to get a few more things for the coleslaw though, we’ll have to go back to other section…”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get everything you need. It better be amazing though, you’ve talked it up.” Murray gave him a look. 

“Of course it’s gonna be delicious, it’s Russian.” 

While they were waiting in line to check out, there was a little baby looking curiously back at them while his mother talked to the cashier. Murray was leaning on the push bar of the cart while Alexei was leafing through a magazine, looking at the pictures.The baby giggled as Murray stuck out his tongue and made a funny face. Alexei hid his smile in the glossy pages of the magazine. His alpha was just a big softy.


End file.
